British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
