The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
