The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
