The BBC committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are ordering the corporation to transmit a message of our conclusions against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The authority's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it infringed the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and language are finalised."
