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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Trust'

The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."