The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a programme about Gaza was the offspring of a Hamas official, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are ordering the broadcaster to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the narrator and the content he shared.
"Confidence is at the heart of the connection between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong amounts of confidence that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the directive as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
