The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
