A report commissioned by BBC director-general Tim Davie has concluded that the Gaza documentary ‘How to Survive a Warzone’ breached editorial standards and that oversight failures occurred before it was pulled from iPlayer in February. The independent producer, Hoyo Films, was found primarily responsible, although the BBC accepted that its own checks fell short.
Oversight failures and mistakes
The review revealed that three Hoyo staff were aware the narrator’s father held the position of deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas-run Gaza government. This crucial detail had not been disclosed to the BBC.The report criticised the BBC for not undertaking “sufficiently proactive” editorial checks and highlighted a “lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions” before broadcast. It also concluded that while the narrator’s scripted part did not breach impartiality, using a child narrator was “not appropriate” under the circumstances.
Ofcom launches investigation
Broadcast regulator Ofcom has announced its own inquiry, stating it will investigate whether the documentary misleadingly presented facts, in breach of rules requiring factual content to be accurate. “Having examined the BBC’s findings, we are launching an investigation under our rule which states that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience,” an Ofcom spokesperson was quoted as saying to the BBC.
BBC’s response
BBC News CEO Deborah Turness told Radio 4’s The World at One that the organisation is “owning where we have made mistakes, finding out what went wrong, acting on the findings, and we’ve said we’re sorry.” She said that BBC staff overseeing the documentary “should have known about the boy’s position before transmission.”The BBC has introduced new steps to improve oversight after the review. These include creating a new director role on the BBC News board to oversee long documentaries, issuing fresh guidance to check narrators more carefully in sensitive news programmes, and starting a new approval process to spot any problems before programmes are made.Director‑general Tim Davie acknowledged “a significant failing in relation to accuracy” and said the BBC would pursue accountability and implement reforms immediately. He added: “We will now take action on two fronts. Fair, clear and appropriate actions to ensure proper accountability and the immediate implementation of steps to prevent such errors being repeated.”
Hoyo Films responds
Hoyo Films issued an apology and said it took the reviewer’s findings “extremely seriously”. It welcomed evidence showing “no inappropriate influence on the content of the documentary from any third party” and said it would collaborate with the BBC to possibly re-edit some material for archive purposes.Media watchdog against antisemitism criticised the BBC’s reforms as insufficient, saying: “The report says nothing we didn’t already know… The report yields no new insight, and almost reads like it’s trying to exonerate the BBC.”The review was conducted by Peter Johnston, the BBC’s director of editorial complaints and reviews, who examined around 5,000 documents and 150 hours of footage from the ten‑month production.