The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to erode the very considerable amounts of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
