The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's parent served in a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a television network and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that audiences would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
