The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
