The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "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 broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
