British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
