The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling 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 aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
