The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are directing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement declared: "Our probe found that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
