The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
