The BBC launched the inquiry after director-general Greg Dyke and chairman Gavyn Davies resigned earlier this year after the Hutton Report found that BBC 'Today' programme reporter Andrew Gilligan's story on weapons of mass destruction was unjustified.
The inquiry was seen as controversial within the BBC, raising fears that it could lead to a witch-hunt of senior staff held accountable for the debacle that cost the corporation its two most senior executives.
The BBC said that most of the findings would be kept confidential, but said that it wished to confirm that no dismissals would follow.
On the key points relating to the now infamous two-way between Gilligan and John Humphrys on the 'Today' programme on May 29 2003, which sparked the controversy, it said it was satisfied that a core script was properly prepared but Gilligan did not then follow normal practice.
It also said that the BBC's evidence to the Hutton Inquiry on this matter could have been clearer.
On another issue raised during the Hutton Inquiry, the internal inquiry supported two senior staff who came in for criticism. Hutton said that an email sent by the editor of the 'Today' programme Kevin Marsh to the head of radio news should have been referred to their senior colleagues and that the fact that it was not constituted a flaw in the BBC's management system.
"The impression given by the BBC's evidence was that this email did not reflect the views of senior news management. The process has concluded that, in fact, it did...so there was no need for the email to be referred up. The implied criticism of Stephen Mitchell and Kevin Marsh in these aspects was in our view unjustified."
The results were welcomed by Richard Sambrook, BBC director of news, who said now that the internal inquiry was over it was time to move on.
"This has been a difficult period for BBC News. There are lessons to learn from the events of last year. We must now put this chapter behind us and continue with our main objective: providing strong, trusted journalism to our UK and global audiences," he said.
The inquiry was led by Stephen Dando, BBC people director, and Caroline Thomson, director of policy and legal. A separate process to identify the editorial lessons from these events is currently being conducted by another team under the chairmanship of Ronald Neil.
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