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The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Erode Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."