The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, as determined by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the programme was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a prime-time declaration about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our findings against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a date to be determined," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the narrator's father occupied a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a media organization and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the BBC.
"This error had the possibility to undermine the significantly high degrees of trust that audiences would have placed in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was removed from the online platform in February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it violated the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the conclusions of the internal assessment, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in complete. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and language are confirmed."
