The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father served in a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of confidence that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
