The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
