The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to erode the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
