The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable amounts of confidence that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
