The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
