The public service broadcaster was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to air a peak-time statement about its conclusions.
"As this represents a significant violation of our code, we are instructing the broadcaster to transmit a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Potential to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's report declared: "Our probe found that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was materially misleading.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their assessment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of trust that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The film was removed from iPlayer in the month of February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it violated the corporation's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to clause 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
