BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
