The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
