🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Deemed a 'Significant' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom. An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive". The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy". The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings. "Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said. 'Possibility to Undermine Credibility' The regulator's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate. "It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented. "Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war." The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."