British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
