The BBC committed a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a post in the Hamas-administered government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the corporation's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
