British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
