The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe found that the programme's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that audiences would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
