🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom. An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive". The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy". Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings. "Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said. 'Possibility to Damage Credibility' The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided. "Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war." The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness. A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."