The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions 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 watchdog's report declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
