The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
