The public service broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has instructed the BBC to broadcast a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the broadcaster to transmit a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a timing to be finalised," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian occupied a post in the Hamas-administered government was substantially inaccurate.
"Consequently that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the heart of the relationship between a television network and its audience, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the very considerable levels of credibility that the public would have placed in a factual film from the broadcaster about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was pulled from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections came to light, and in the month of July an corporation's own inquiry concluded it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in complete. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
