The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
