The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined 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 factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
