The public service broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Damage Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it violated the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
