The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
