The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and language are finalised."
