The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
