The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog 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 truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are directing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
