BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
