The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions 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 the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are finalised."
