The BBC was found to have committed a "serious breach" of media regulations by not revealing that the narrator of a programme about the Gaza conflict was the child of a Hamas administrator, as ruled by British broadcasting authority Ofcom.
An inquiry by the media regulator into the programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the film was "materially misleading".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had already issued an apology, saying there had been "a major oversight in relation to truthfulness".
Ofcom has instructed the corporation to air a prime-time announcement about its conclusions.
"Given this constitutes a serious breach of our rules, we are directing the corporation to transmit a announcement of our findings against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a schedule to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Possibility to Damage Credibility'
The regulator's report declared: "Our probe determined that the programme's omission to reveal that the presenter's male guardian held a post in the Hamas-controlled administration was significantly deceptive.
"Consequently that the public did not have critical information which may have been very significant to their assessment of the narrator and the information he provided.
"Credibility is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its viewers, notably for a state-funded media outlet such as the BBC.
"This oversight had the possibility to undermine the very considerable degrees of confidence that the public would have invested in a BBC factual programme about the conflict in Gaza."
The documentary was withdrawn from iPlayer in last February after the presenter's personal associations came to light, and in the month of July an broadcaster's internal assessment determined it violated the organization's editorial guidelines on truthfulness.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The authority's determination is in agreement with the results of Peter Johnston's review, that there was a major oversight in the programme in relation to the corporation's content standards on truthfulness, which aligns with Rule 2.2 of the authority's broadcasting regulations.
"We issued an apology for this and we agree with the regulator's ruling in its entirety. We will comply with the penalty as soon as the date and language are determined."
