The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas representative, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the BBC to transmit a evening declaration about its decisions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Damage Confidence'
The regulator's statement said: "Our probe found that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a television network and its public, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to damage the very considerable amounts of credibility that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The film was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
