The BBC committed a "serious breach" of industry standards by omitting to mention 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 the broadcasting watchdog into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to air a prime-time announcement about its findings.
"As this represents a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's report said: "Our probe determined that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-administered administration was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their assessment of the voice and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the connection between a media organization and its public, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A corporation official commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in complete. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
