The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
