The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance 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 accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
