🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Media Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading". The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its conclusions. "Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated. 'Risk to Undermine Confidence' The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate. "Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented. "Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict." The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness. A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."