đź”— Share this article British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Rules, Says Ofcom The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom. An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive". The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions. "Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read. 'Possibility to Damage Confidence' The authority's report said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate. "It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided. "Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC. "This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza." The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness. A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code. "We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."