The public service broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our probe found that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's father held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
