BBC breached editorial guidelines with Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, review finds

The independent review found that three members of the documentary's production company, Hoyo Films, knew of the role of the boy's father at the time of broadcast, but no one in the BBC was aware.

The review was led by Peter Johnson, the director of editorial complaints and reviews, who noted that while there was no evidence "to support the suggestion that the narrator's father or family influenced the content of the programme in any way", the inclusion of the child narration was "not appropriate".

The report found that a fee of £975 was paid for the narrator, via his adult sister – a fee that was not "outside the range of what might be reasonable in the context".

"Peter Johnston's report identifies a significant failing in relation to accuracy in this documentary," BBC director general Tim Davie said in response.

"I thank him for his thorough work and I am sorry for this failing. 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."

The BBC Board added: "We thank Peter Johnston for his work. His report is a comprehensive examination of a complex programme, the production of which spanned many months from concept through to broadcast - and is critical in laying bare the facts of what happened.

"Nothing is more important than trust and transparency in our journalism. We welcome the actions the executive are taking to avoid this failing being repeated in the future."

In a newly-released statement, Hoyo Films said it takes the findings of the report "extremely seriously" and issued an apology "for the mistake that resulted in a breach of the [BBC] editorial guidelines".

"We are pleased that the report found that there was no evidence of inappropriate influence on the content of the documentary from any third party," the statement reads.

It continues: "We appreciate the rigorous nature of this investigation, and its findings that Hoyo Films did not intentionally mislead the BBC, that there were no other breaches of the editorial guidelines in the programme, and that there was no evidence to suggest that the programme funds were spent other than for reasonable, production-related purposes.

"Hoyo Films welcomes the report's recommendations and hope they will improve processes and prevent similar problems in the future. We are working closely with the BBC to see if we can find an appropriate way to bring back to iPlayer the stories of those featured in the programme.

"Our team in Gaza risked their lives to document the devastating impact of war on children. Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone remains a vital account, and our contributors, who have no say in the conflict, deserve to have their voices heard."

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