The British broadcaster engaged in a "major breach" of media regulations by failing to disclose that the voice of a film about the Gaza conflict was the son of a Hamas representative, according to British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An probe by Ofcom into Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had earlier expressed regret, stating there had been "a serious error in relation to truthfulness".
The regulator has directed the broadcaster to transmit a prime-time statement about its findings.
"Since this amounts to a major infringement of our rules, we are instructing the broadcaster to air a message of our determinations against it on BBC2 at 21:00, with a date to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Confidence'
The regulator's announcement stated: "Our investigation concluded that the film's omission to reveal that the narrator's father held a role in the Hamas-run administration was materially misleading.
"This implied that the public did not have critical information which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he shared.
"Trust is at the heart of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, especially for a public service broadcaster such as the British Broadcasting Corporation.
"This failing had the potential to undermine the significantly high amounts of credibility that audiences would have put in a factual film from the broadcaster about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was pulled from iPlayer in the month of February after the presenter's family links emerged, and in the month of July an internal BBC review concluded it violated the organization's content policies on factual correctness.
A BBC spokesperson said: "The regulator's decision is in line with the conclusions of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the corporation's content standards on accuracy, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of Ofcom's Broadcasting Code.
"We expressed regret for this and we accept the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and wording are confirmed."
