The BBC committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report said: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
