The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
