🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, States Ofcom The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy". The regulator has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions. "Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read. 'Potential to Erode Credibility' The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading. "It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared. "Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza." The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness. A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."