A BBC documentary about children’s lives in Gaza breached editorial guidelines on accuracy, a review by the corporation has found.
Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was pulled from iPlayer in February after it emerged the 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
But a review by the BBC has today concluded that the documentary breached editorial guidelines on accuracy by failing to disclose the narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
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The review found that Hoyo Films, the independent production company behind the film, bears most of the responsibility for the failure but that the BBC also bears some responsibility.
It found that three members of Hoyo Films knew of the father’s position. Whilst no-one within the BBC knew this at the time, the report criticised the broadcaster’s team for not being “sufficiently proactive” with initial editorial checks, and for a “lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions.”
The decision to remove Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone from iPlayer sparked anger at the time, with some 500 media figures calling for the programme to be reinstated on the streaming service.
This included Gary Lineker, who said he had no regrets about signing the letter.
Speaking to the BBC’s Amol Rajan earlier this year, he said he “100%” supports the documentary being made available to view again, saying that the BBC had “capitulated to lobbying” by pulling it.
The BBC has faced criticism in recent weeks for its coverage of the conflict in Gaza. Last month, a report from the Centre for Media Monitoring found the broadcaster had been “systematically biased against Palestinians.”
The corporation has also been criticised for its decision to pull another documentary about the conflict, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, from its schedule.
The film was later aired by Channel 4.