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The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.

An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".

The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its conclusions.

"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.

'Risk to Undermine Trust'

The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.

"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.

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

"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."

The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.

A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.

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