🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Media Regulations, States Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate". The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". The authority has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions. "Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said. 'Risk to Undermine Confidence' The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he shared. "Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster. "This error had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict." The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness. A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."