The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and language are determined."
