The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
