The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have put 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 familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
