The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the BBC to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian occupied a role in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of trust that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
