🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Violation of Media Rules, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive". The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy". The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions. "Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read. 'Risk to Erode Trust' The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading. "This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided. "Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster. "This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war." The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy. A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."