🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, Says UK Media Regulator The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate". The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness". The regulator has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions. "As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated. 'Possibility to Damage Credibility' The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading. "Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided. "Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC. "This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war." The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."