The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas official, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's announcement declared: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
