🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Programme Ruled a 'Major' Infringement of Media Standards, Declares UK Media Regulator The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness". The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its findings. "Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said. 'Risk to Damage Credibility' The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading. "It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared. "Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster. "This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness. A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."