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The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.

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

The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".

The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its findings.

"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.

'Risk to Damage Confidence'

The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.

"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.

"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."

The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.

A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.

"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."