The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
