The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a message of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement said: "Our investigation concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
