The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
