đŸ”— Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Major' Violation of Media Regulations, Declares Ofcom The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom. An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate". The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". The regulator has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions. "Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," it said. 'Potential to Damage Confidence' The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive. "It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared. "Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC. "This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy. A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."