The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our code, we are instructing the BBC to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
