The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster 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 prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to damage the significantly high amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
