The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a media organization and its public, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
