🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, Declares UK Media Regulator The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom. An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate". The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness". The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions. "Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read. 'Potential to Undermine Trust' The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive. "It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided. "Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict." The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness. A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."