The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which aligns with 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 penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
