The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
