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The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".

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

The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.

'Potential to Damage Confidence'

The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.

"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."