The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
