The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has ordered the broadcaster to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father served in a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
