The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to accuracy".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its audience, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of trust that audiences would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it infringed the organization's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on factual correctness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
