🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Serious' Breach of Media Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive". The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness". Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions. "Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated. 'Possibility to Undermine Trust' The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading. "Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented. "Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war." The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy. A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."