The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring 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 concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
