The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our investigation found that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father served in a position in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an internal BBC review found it infringed the broadcaster's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The authority's determination is in line with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
