BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance 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 aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
