The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the presenter of a film about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Trust'
The authority's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a role in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the risk to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of trust that the public would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was pulled from the BBC's streaming service in February after the boy's family links came to light, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it breached the corporation's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line 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 accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and language are confirmed."
