The BBC committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
