British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says Ofcom
The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
