🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom. An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive". The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions. "Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read. 'Potential to Undermine Confidence' The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate. "This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided. "Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster. "This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war." The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness. A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."