The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
