🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Significant' Violation of Broadcasting Standards, States Ofcom The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom. An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive". The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions. "As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read. 'Risk to Undermine Confidence' The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided. "Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This failing had the possibility to erode the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza." The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness. A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."