The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
