đź”— Share this article BBC Gaza Film Deemed a 'Serious' Infringement of Broadcasting Standards, Declares Broadcasting Watchdog The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to 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 chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness". Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions. "Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said. 'Risk to Erode Confidence' The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive. "This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared. "Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC. "This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict." The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness. A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations. "We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."