The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the narrator's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
