The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling 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 truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
