🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Considered a 'Major' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, Says Broadcasting Watchdog The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading". The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness". The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions. "As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated. 'Possibility to Damage Confidence' The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented. "Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC. "This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza." The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness. A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."