The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The authority's report stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he presented.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of confidence that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
