British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog
The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme 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 directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."