British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
