The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
