British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Standards, States UK Media Regulator
The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
