The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
