The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog 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 already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our rules, we are ordering the BBC to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's report declared: "Our investigation found that the documentary's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian served in a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the narrator and the information he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its public, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the potential to damage the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in last February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
