The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as ruled by regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
