The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The authority's statement declared: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent served in a post in the Hamas-administered administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the audience did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their judgment of the narrator and the content he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the relationship between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the conclusions of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are confirmed."
