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The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."