British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
