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The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The regulator's report declared: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

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

"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."