The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
