BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog
The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
