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The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

Ofcom has directed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.

"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.

'Risk to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.

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

"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

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