The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
