The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
