The BBC engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a film about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "materially misleading".
The head of the BBC had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the BBC to transmit a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be finalised," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "Our probe found that the programme's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the heart of the bond between a broadcaster and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that audiences would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will follow the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
