The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the narrator's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
