BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "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 reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."