The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
