The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe 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 already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
