🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Film Considered a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom. An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive". The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness". The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings. "Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated. 'Possibility to Damage Trust' The authority's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive. "It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented. "Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war." The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness. A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."