The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a evening declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the film's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
