A BBC documentary about children's lives in Gaza breached editorial guidelines on accuracy because it failed to disclose that the program was narrated by the son of a Gaza government official, according to a report published Monday.
The broadcaster removed the program, Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, from its streaming service in February after it emerged that the 13-year-old narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, a former deputy minister of agriculture in Hamas' civilian administration.
A review by the BBC found that the independent production company that made the program did not share the background information regarding the narrator's father with the corporation.
It said that the production company, Hoyo Films, bears most responsibility for the failure, though it did not “intentionally” mislead the BBC.
The review, conducted by the corporation's director of editorial complaints and reviews, found no other breaches of editorial guidelines, including impartiality.
There was no evidence of "outside interests" impacting on the program, it said.
The broadcaster's Director-General Tim Davie had told lawmakers that the BBC received hundreds of complaints alleging that the documentary was biased against Israel, as well as hundreds more criticising the program's removal from its streaming service.
Davie said Monday that the report identified “a significant failing” in relation to accuracy in the documentary.
Hoyo Films apologised for the mistake. Both firms said they would prevent similar errors in the future.
Earlier this month, Britain's Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy questioned why no one at the BBC had lost their job over the program's airing — raising further fears about political interference at the public broadcaster.
Separately, more than 100 BBC journalists wrote a letter to Davie earlier this month criticising the decision not to air another documentary, Gaza: Medics Under Fire. They expressed concerns that the broadcaster was not reporting “'without fear or favour' when it comes to Israel".
The decision suggested that the BBC was an "organization that is crippled by the fear of being perceived as critical of the Israeli government", the letter said.
The BBC has been under intense scrutiny over its coverage of Israel's war on Gaza, both by pro-Palestine activists and pro-Israel advocates.
A study published by the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM) in June found that BBC reports mentioned Israeli deaths more frequently than those of Palestinians, with 33 times per killing in written reports and 19 times in broadcast packages.
The report also found differences in the language used to describe victims. Terms such as "massacre", "atrocities", and "butchered" were largely reserved for Israeli victims, with the word "massacre" appearing 18 times more often about Israelis and never used in headlines about Palestinian deaths. Other vocabulary, like "murder" and "butcher", was only applied to Israeli casualties.