The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
