🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Programme Considered a 'Significant' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom. An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive". The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy". Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its findings. "As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read. 'Risk to Undermine Credibility' The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate. "It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared. "Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza." The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."