‘Collective failure’ led to Guardian portraying Hamas in ‘unacceptable terms’
Newspaper admits errors that led to publication of review, since removed online, of a Channel 4 documentary about 7 October.
The Guardian has admitted “collective failure” led to the publication of a review of a Channel 4 documentary about 7 October that criticised the negative portrayal of Hamas terrorists.
A statement to Jewish News on Tuesday morning: “A review of One Day in October, a documentary shown on Channel 4 about the Hamas massacre at the Be’eri kibbutz, was published on 10 October 2024 (G2, p10). The Guardian considers the article did convey the harrowing footage and powerful survivor interviews and condemned the attack’s perpetrators. But the unacceptable terms in which it went on to criticise the documentary were inconsistent with our editorial standards. This was a collective failure of process and we apologise for any offence caused. The article has been removed from our website.”
In his review of One Day in October, which depicts the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri using CCTV footage, Stuart Jeffries writes: “[The documentary] does a good job of demonising Gazans, first as testosterone-crazed Hamas killers, later as shameless civilian looters, asset-stripping the kibbutz while bodies lay in the street and the terrified living hid.”
Jeffries also complained in his piece that the programme does not help viewers understand “why” Hamas wanted to murder civilians.
The online review was met with widespread revulsion.
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