The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the narrator's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
