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The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

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

The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Erode Confidence'

The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.

"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"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 determined."