The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
