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The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.

An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".

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

"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.

'Potential to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.

"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.

"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised 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 confirmed."