The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has directed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our code, we are directing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
