The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom 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 previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
