The British broadcaster committed a "major breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas representative, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has found that the programme was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has ordered the corporation to broadcast a evening announcement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to broadcast a statement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Possibility to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement said: "Our investigation determined that the film's omission to reveal that the voice's parent occupied a role in the Hamas-controlled authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have vital facts which may have been extremely pertinent to their judgment of the voice and the details he provided.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a media organization and its viewers, particularly for a state-funded media outlet such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This error had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of confidence that the public would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the Israel-Gaza war."
The film was pulled from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's familial connections emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the corporation's editorial guidelines on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in agreement with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We issued an apology for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will adhere to the directive as soon as the timing and language are confirmed."
