The British broadcaster was found to have committed a "significant breach" of industry standards by not revealing that the narrator of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The BBC's director general had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to transmit a evening declaration about its conclusions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our regulations, we are instructing the broadcaster to broadcast a announcement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 21:00, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report stated: "Our probe concluded that the programme's lack of disclosure that the narrator's male guardian occupied a position in the Hamas-run authority was significantly deceptive.
"It meant that the audience did not have critical information which may have been extremely pertinent to their evaluation of the narrator and the details he presented.
"Credibility is at the center of the bond between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the potential to erode the exceptionally strong degrees of credibility that the public would have invested in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was withdrawn from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review determined it breached the corporation's journalistic standards on truthfulness.
A representative for the broadcaster said: "The Ofcom ruling is in line 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 truthfulness, which reflects Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we agree with the authority's determination in full. We will follow the directive as soon as the timing and wording are determined."
