British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
