British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
