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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The authority's report declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.

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

"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."