BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
