The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
