The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-run government was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its audience, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
