The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
