The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "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 BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
