The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
