The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the BBC to transmit a evening announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a major infringement of our code, we are ordering the broadcaster to broadcast a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The authority's report stated: "Our probe determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the voice's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he provided.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which reflects clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
