The British broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a documentary about the Gaza conflict was the offspring of a Hamas administrator, as determined by regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by the media regulator into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, noting there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The authority has directed the broadcaster to broadcast a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to broadcast a announcement of our determinations against it on BBC Two at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's father held a role in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"This implied that the public did not have vital facts which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the information he shared.
"Credibility is at the heart of the bond between a television network and its audience, notably for a public service broadcaster such as the public broadcaster.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the exceptionally strong levels of confidence that the public would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it violated the corporation's journalistic standards on accuracy.
A corporation official stated: "The authority's determination is in accordance with the findings of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the documentary in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which aligns with clause 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with Ofcom's decision in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
