🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Standards, States Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy". The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions. "As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read. 'Possibility to Damage Credibility' The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided. "Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict." The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."