British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
