The public service broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
