British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Ofcom
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
