The BBC committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the narrator's family links emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
