The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
