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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has directed the corporation to air a evening statement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.

"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."