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The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".

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

The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'

The regulator's report said: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.

"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.

A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."