British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
