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The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring 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 found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.

"Trust is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own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 organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."