The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's father held a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the significantly high amounts of trust that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
