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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.

'Possibility to Erode Confidence'

The authority's statement stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.

"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."