The BBC was found to have committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the presenter of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The regulator has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time declaration about its findings.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our code, we are directing the BBC to transmit a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our probe determined that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's parent occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a media organization and its public, especially for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the risk to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from the online platform in last February after the boy's family links came to light, and in this past July an internal BBC review determined it violated the broadcaster's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "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 BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which aligns with regulation 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the sanction as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
