The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
