The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
