The BBC committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by omitting to mention that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the son of a Hamas official, as ruled by UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had already issued an apology, stating there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the BBC to air a prime-time statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the BBC to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 21:00, with a date to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our investigation found that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled administration was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their assessment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the risk to undermine the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's familial connections were revealed, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in complete. We will follow the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
