The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with 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 adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
