The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
