The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
