The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
