The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
