🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom. An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive". The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings. "Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the statement read. 'Potential to Damage Credibility' The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive. "It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided. "Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster. "This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza." The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."