The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
