The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our investigation concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
