The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the corporation to broadcast a peak-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's report declared: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a post in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high amounts of trust that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "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 factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
