The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
