British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."