The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a programme about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The regulator's report said: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the relationship between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it breached the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
