The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
