The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The authority's statement said: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
