🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, States Ofcom The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive". The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness". Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions. "Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated. 'Potential to Undermine Confidence' The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading. "Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he shared. "Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC. "This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war." The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness. A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."