BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."