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

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

The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.

"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Erode Trust'

The authority's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he shared.

"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

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