The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
