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The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."