The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time statement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent served in a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
