The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas official, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to accuracy".
The authority has ordered the BBC to air a evening declaration about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Erode Credibility'
The authority's statement declared: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a broadcaster and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
