The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
