The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
