🔗 Share this article BBC Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Significant' Breach of Broadcasting Regulations, Says Ofcom The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom. An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading". The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy". The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions. "As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," it said. 'Possibility to Erode Trust' The authority's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate. "It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented. "Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC. "This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war." The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness. A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards. "We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."