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The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.

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

The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".

Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.

"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Potential to Undermine Trust'

The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.

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

"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.

"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."

The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.

A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."