🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom. An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog 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, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". The authority has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings. "Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read. 'Potential to Undermine Credibility' The regulator's report said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive. "Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented. "Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster. "This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."