The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
