The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring 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 found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
