The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, 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 "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are determined."
