The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the broadcaster's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
