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The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".

The authority has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.

'Potential to Erode Credibility'

The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.

"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."