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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'

The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

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

The film was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results 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 the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."