đź”— Share this article BBC Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom. An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate". The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy". The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions. "Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read. 'Risk to Undermine Confidence' The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive. "Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared. "Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict." The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to 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 follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."