The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
