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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled 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 programme was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has ordered the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Damage Credibility'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.

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

"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.

"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."