The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted found that the film's failure to disclose that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and language are determined."
