British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised 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 confirmed."
