🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading". The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy". Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions. "As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated. 'Possibility to Damage Trust' The regulator's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate. "It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented. "Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness. A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."