The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
