🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading". The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness". The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions. "Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said. 'Potential to Erode Credibility' The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented. "Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict." The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy. A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, 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 Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."