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The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".

The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Undermine Credibility'

The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.

"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.

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

"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.

A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."