The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
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 BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
