The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
