The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
