The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 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 schedule and wording are finalised."
