🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Film Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says UK Media Regulator The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its conclusions. "Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read. 'Risk to Damage Credibility' The authority's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive. "It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented. "Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC. "This error had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict." The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness. A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."