The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
