🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading". The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions. "As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated. 'Potential to Undermine Trust' The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading. "Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented. "Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness. A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "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 language are confirmed."