The BBC engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, 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 previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening announcement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the BBC to air a statement of our determinations against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the voice's parent held a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Confidence is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its audience, notably for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to damage the very considerable levels of trust that viewers would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The film was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are determined."
