The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
