The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling 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 factual correctness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
