🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Rules, Says UK Media Regulator The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom. An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading". The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings. "As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read. 'Possibility to Erode Credibility' The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading. "Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented. "Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war." The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness. A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."