The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster 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The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
