The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the voice of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
