🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Declares Ofcom The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom. An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive". The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness". The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its findings. "Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated. 'Potential to Erode Credibility' The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate. "Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared. "Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war." The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."