The BBC engaged in a "serious breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the BBC to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The regulator's statement stated: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent held a post in the Hamas-run authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Trust is at the core of the relationship between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the potential to damage the very considerable degrees of trust that the public would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the authority's determination in complete. We will comply with the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
