The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's family links were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
