The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
The authority's report declared: "Our investigation found that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are finalised."
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