The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
