The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
