The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."