The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to erode the significantly high levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
