The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the presenter's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
