The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
