BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
