The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
