The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a significant failing in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time declaration about its findings.
"As this represents a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Potential to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-run government was materially misleading.
"It meant that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the presenter and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it infringed the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in its entirety. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
