British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
