The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
