The British broadcaster engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Trust'
The regulator's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
