🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate". The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions. "As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated. 'Potential to Erode Credibility' The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading. "It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared. "Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war." The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness. A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."