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The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious 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, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".

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

The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.

"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.

"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."