BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
