The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a role in the Hamas-run administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of credibility that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
