The British broadcaster engaged in a "significant breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a documentary about Gaza was the child of a Hamas administrator, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to factual correctness".
The authority has ordered the broadcaster to broadcast a peak-time announcement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a serious breach of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a timing to be determined," it said.
'Possibility to Undermine Trust'
The authority's statement stated: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a role in the Hamas-administered authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a television network and its public, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the potential to erode the very considerable degrees of credibility that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Gaza conflict."
The film was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment concluded it infringed the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster commented: "The regulator's decision is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on factual correctness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept Ofcom's decision in full. We will comply with the sanction as soon as the date and wording are determined."
