🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom. An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading". The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings. "Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said. 'Possibility to Erode Confidence' The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading. "It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared. "Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."