The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza 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 programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
