🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Significant' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom. An investigation 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, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness". The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions. "Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated. 'Risk to Undermine Trust' The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading. "Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided. "Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."