🔗 Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Considered a 'Serious' Breach of Broadcasting Rules, States Ofcom The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive". The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings. "Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read. 'Possibility to Undermine Credibility' The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading. "It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided. "Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster. "This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza." The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness. A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."