The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
