The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a prime-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement stated: "Our probe found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of confidence that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
