BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
