The BBC was found to have committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by omitting to mention that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the documentary was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our regulations, we are instructing the corporation to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a schedule to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Trust'
The watchdog's statement declared: "The inquiry we conducted determined that the documentary's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-controlled government was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the content he presented.
"Confidence is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its audience, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have placed in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from the BBC's streaming service in the month of February after the boy's personal associations came to light, and in this past July an corporation's own inquiry found it breached the organization's content policies on truthfulness.
A corporation official stated: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects clause 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
