The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the timing and language are determined."
