The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
