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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 voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Trust'

The regulator's report said: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.

"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.

"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."

The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

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