British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Ofcom
The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
