British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom
The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
