The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
