🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Documentary Deemed a 'Serious' Violation of Media Regulations, Says Ofcom The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom. An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading". The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its decisions. "As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read. 'Potential to Erode Confidence' The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading. "Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared. "Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation. "This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza." The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy. A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."