🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Broadcasting Watchdog The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom. An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate". The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness". The authority has directed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its findings. "Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said. 'Risk to Undermine Credibility' The authority's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading. "This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented. "Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict." The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."