The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to transmit a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
