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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".

The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has directed the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.

'Potential to Undermine Confidence'

The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.

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

"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."