The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
