British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
