🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom. An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate". The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness". The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions. "Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated. 'Risk to Undermine Trust' The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading. "It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented. "Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza." The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."