🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Breach of Media Rules, States Ofcom The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness". Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions. "As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read. 'Risk to Undermine Confidence' The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented. "Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war." The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."