The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the narrator's father served in a post in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
