🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom. An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate". The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy". Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings. "As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated. 'Potential to Damage Credibility' The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided. "Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict." The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."