The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
