The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
