The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are finalised."
