The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation 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 determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
