The British broadcaster committed a "significant breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas official, as determined by UK media regulator 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 head of the BBC had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has ordered the broadcaster to air a evening announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a date to be confirmed," it said.
'Risk to Damage Credibility'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our investigation determined that the documentary's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a position in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the public did not have essential details which may have been highly relevant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Confidence is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This oversight had the possibility to damage the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Gaza conflict."
The documentary was removed from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links were revealed, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it breached the broadcaster's content policies on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will adhere to the penalty as soon as the schedule and wording are determined."
