BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination 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 accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
