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The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

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

Ofcom has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.

"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.

"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."