The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
