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The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.

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

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

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

"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.

'Possibility to Erode Trust'

The regulator's report declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.

"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.

"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.

"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."

The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.

A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement 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 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 complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."