The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
