The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to damage the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
