The BBC committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
