The public service broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of industry standards by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "materially misleading".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to accuracy".
The regulator has instructed the broadcaster to transmit a peak-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the corporation to transmit a message of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a date to be finalised," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's report stated: "Our probe determined that the film's lack of disclosure that the voice's parent served in a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the details he presented.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This failing had the possibility to erode the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The programme was withdrawn from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's familial connections emerged, and in July an broadcaster's internal assessment found it violated the broadcaster's journalistic standards on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the documentary in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which reflects regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are confirmed."
