🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Infringement of Media Rules, Says Ofcom The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading". The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy". Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions. "Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," it said. 'Potential to Erode Confidence' The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading. "Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented. "Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict." The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness. A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."