The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
