The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
