British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast 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.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement 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 factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
