The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
