The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
