The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
