The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas official, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance 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 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 adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
