The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
