The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to transmit a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of trust that viewers would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are determined."
