The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
