The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Undermine Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
