The BBC committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
