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The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".

The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.

'Possibility to Damage Credibility'

The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.

"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.

"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.

"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."

The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.

A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."