The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the corporation to broadcast a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The authority's announcement stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's failure to disclose that the narrator's parent occupied a post in the Hamas-administered authority was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that viewers would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was pulled from the online platform in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
