British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog 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, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
