The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Trust'
The authority's announcement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement 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 aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the timing and language are determined."
