The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a film about Gaza was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom 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 earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
