The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
