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The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.

"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."