The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "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 aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
