🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings. "As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read. 'Potential to Undermine Credibility' The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading. "Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared. "Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict." The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."