The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to transmit a peak-time declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the organization's content policies on accuracy.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
