The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
