The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
