The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
