The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme 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 regulator has directed the BBC to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our probe concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the very considerable amounts of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links emerged, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The authority's determination is in line with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
