The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 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 timing and language are confirmed."
