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The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its decisions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Erode Confidence'

The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.

"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."