The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined 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 truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
