The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
