The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
