The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to air a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in July an internal BBC review determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are determined."
