The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The regulator's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects clause 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 directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
