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 child of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
