British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Standards, Says UK Media Regulator
The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
