The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, 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 regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
