BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
