The BBC has come under fire from the makers of a BAFTA-winning documentary about Gaza, claiming that the company is “refusing” to screen the movie.
Gaza: The Beeb had first commissioned Doctors Under Attack, but it was cancelled due to “impartiality” concerns.
In July of last year, Channel 4 aired the 65-minute documentary, which was described as “a forensic investigation into Israeli military attacks on hospitals in Gaza.”
However, after funding the research, the producers now assert that the BBC “refused” to broadcast the show, adding that they “refused to be silenced or censored.”
One of the documentary’s creators, Ramita Navai, discussed the “medicide” that killed 400 doctors at the BAFTA Television Awards on Sunday night. She stated: “The BBC paid for the investigation but refused to show it, but we refused to be silenced and censored.” We are grateful to Channel 4 for airing this movie.
Ben de Pear, a fellow producer, continued, saying, “We dedicate this award to over 80 Palestinian doctors who are currently being held in detention centers and Israeli human rights groups described as torture camps.”
“Just a quick question for the BBC: will you remove us from the BAFTA show later tonight since you dropped our film?” Thank you, and good night.
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack is described by Channel 4 as ‘a forensic investigation into Israeli military attacks on hospitals in Gaza’.
The BBC “refused” to broadcast the documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, according to Ramita Navai (center).
At the 2026 BAFTA Television Awards, Ben de Pear accepts the Current Affairs prize.
Additionally, the show “examines allegations of the targeting and abuse of doctors and healthcare workers in Gaza.”
The Guardian gave the documentary, which was produced by Basement Films and directed by Karim Shah, five stars, calling it “the stuff of nightmares” but said that “the world needs to see it.”
The BBC revealed in June of last year that the company had cancelled the program because of “impartiality concerns.”
It was supposed to air in February of that year, but it never did.
At the time, the Beeb declared that it was “determined to report all aspects of the conflict in the Middle East impartially and fairly.”
It also stated that it was “transferring ownership of the film material to Basement Films.”
The production business, however, retaliated against the company, stating that it was “relieved that the BBC will finally allow this film to be released.”
Mr. de Pear stated that journalists had been “stymied and silenced” and that the BBC had “utterly failed” at the time.
Doctors Under Attack was marketed as “a forensic investigation into Israeli military attacks on hospitals” in Gaza.
According to the BBC, the show was put on hold when Mr. de Pear and Mr. Navai publicly criticised the Gaza War.
In an interview with Radio 4, Mr. Navai declared that Israel had “become a rogue state that’s committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass murdering Palestinians.”
The BBC decided to discontinue the show after removing a different documentary from iPlayer earlier that year.
After it was discovered that the 13-year-old son of a Hamas official narrated the documentary Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, the company incited outrage with claims of neutrality.
While it reviewed Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, the BBC stopped producing Gaza: Doctors Under Attack.
“We have concluded that broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC,” a spokesman stated in June of last year.
A fundamental tenet of BBC News is impartiality. We are the most reputable broadcaster in the world in part because of this.As a result, we are giving Basement Films ownership of the film material. Contrary to certain claims, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack has not undergone the BBC’s final pre-broadcast sign-off procedures since we halted production in April. Any movie that is shown won’t be a BBC production.
We apologise for not being able to share the stories of the doctors and contributors, and we would want to thank them. The BBC will keep providing unbiased coverage of the events in Gaza.
