The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
