British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring 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, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
