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The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme 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, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.

'Potential to Undermine Trust'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he shared.

"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised 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."