The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza situation was the son of a Hamas representative, as determined by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the broadcasting watchdog into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has concluded that the film was "significantly deceptive".
The head of the BBC had previously apologised, saying there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the BBC to air a prime-time announcement about its decisions.
"Given this constitutes a significant violation of our code, we are ordering the corporation to air a statement of our conclusions against it on BBC2 at 9pm, with a schedule to be determined," the statement read.
'Risk to Undermine Confidence'
The authority's announcement declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's failure to disclose that the presenter's male guardian served in a post in the Hamas-administered government was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the viewers did not have essential details which may have been very significant to their judgment of the voice and the details he shared.
"Trust is at the core of the bond between a television network and its viewers, particularly for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the risk to undermine the significantly high levels of trust that viewers would have put in a BBC factual programme about the Israel-Gaza war."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the presenter's personal associations emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it breached the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A representative for the broadcaster stated: "The Ofcom ruling is in accordance with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a significant failing in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to regulation 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We have apologised for this and we comply with the regulator's ruling in full. We will adhere to the sanction as soon as the timing and wording are finalised."
