The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded 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 truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's report declared: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high degrees of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
