The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the presenter's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
