The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
