The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent held a position in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
