The BBC was found to have committed a "major 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 regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
