🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate". The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness". Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions. "Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said. 'Potential to Undermine Credibility' The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate. "It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided. "Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza." The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness. A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."