The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to damage the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
