The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by UK media regulator 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 earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the corporation to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
