BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
