BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
