British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
