The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by failing to disclose that the voice of a programme about the Gaza situation was the child of a Hamas administrator, according to UK media regulator Ofcom.
An probe by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has directed the corporation to air a evening statement about its conclusions.
"Since this amounts to a significant violation of our regulations, we are directing the corporation to air a statement of our findings against it on BBC2 at nine o'clock in the evening, with a schedule to be confirmed," the statement read.
'Potential to Undermine Credibility'
The regulator's announcement said: "The inquiry we conducted concluded that the film's lack of disclosure that the presenter's male guardian held a position in the Hamas-administered authority was substantially inaccurate.
"This implied that the viewers did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the presenter and the information he shared.
"Trust is at the center of the bond between a television network and its audience, particularly for a national broadcasting corporation such as the public broadcaster.
"This error had the possibility to damage the very considerable degrees of confidence that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was pulled from iPlayer in February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in July an corporation's own inquiry found it infringed the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the programme in relation to the broadcaster's journalistic policies on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in full. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are finalised."
