BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance 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 accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
