British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
