The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
