🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Regulations, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive". The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a peak-time statement about its decisions. "Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated. 'Risk to Erode Credibility' The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading. "Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented. "Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza." The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness. A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."