The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
