The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
