The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
