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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.

"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Confidence'

The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.

"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."