Gaza documentary makers dare BBC to cut their Baftas speech after impartiality row

The makers of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack had a warning for the BBC as they accepted their trophy at the TV Baftas tonight.

Nominated in the current affairs category, the film went up against Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War (Exposure), The Covid Contracts: Follow the Money, and Undercover in the Police (Panorama).

Doctors Under Attack was a forensic investigation into Israeli military attacks on hospitals in Gaza. It also examined allegations of abuse of healthcare workers in Gaza.

Originally set to air last February, the documentary was commissioned by the BBC but produced by an independent production company.

It was then shelved by the broadcaster over impartiality concerns and aired on Channel 4 in July.

Tonight, while picking up their prize at the ceremony, journalist Ramita Navai said: ‘Israel has killed over 47,000 children and women in Gaza. So far, Israel has bombed and targeted every single one of Gaza’s hospitals.

‘It’s killed over 1,700 Palestinian doctors and healthcare workers. It has imprisoned over 400 in what the UN now calls the Medicide.

‘These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for but refused to show.

‘But we refuse to be silenced and censored.’

Navai, 52, was joined onstage by executive producer Ben de Pear, who said: ‘Finally, just a question for the BBC: given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?’

In their statement last June, the BBC said it was ‘determined to report all aspects of the conflict in the Middle East impartially and fairly’.

At the time, BBC News reported that the decision to cut ties with the film was made after Navai appeared on Radio 4’s Today, where he said that Israel had ‘become a rogue state that’s committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass murdering Palestinians’.

Earlier that week, Ben De Pear, the former editor of Channel 4 News, also made comments at the Sheffield Documentary Festival.

Speaking during the Too Hot To Handle: The Future of Political Documentaries panel, he said the BBC was ‘racist’ in its reporting of Gaza and had taken an ‘indefensible’ position for PR purposes, instead of ‘standing up for its journalism’.

He added that people within the corporation were ‘ashamed’ of its coverage, also hitting out at then-Director General Tim Davie for ‘taking editorial decisions, which frankly he is not capable of making’.

Shortly after both incidents, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack was put on indefinite hold.

This also came pending the outcome of an investigation into a separate documentary, Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone, which aired on BBC Two in early 2025. It was produced by Hoyo Films.

In the aftermath, the BBC said it ‘could not broadcast [Gaza: Doctors Under Attack] while a review into a separate Gaza documentary was ongoing’.

‘With both films coming from independent production companies, and both about Gaza, it was right to wait for any relevant findings – and put them into action – before broadcasting the film,’ their full statement began.

‘However, we wanted the doctors’ voices to be heard. Our aim was to find a way to air some of the material in our news programmes, in line with our impartiality standards, before the review was published.

‘For some weeks, the BBC has been working with Basement Films to find a way to tell the stories of these doctors on our platforms.’

They went on to say it had become ‘apparent’ that the ‘end of the road’ had been reached with the discussion.

‘We have come to the conclusion 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.’

The corporation further clarified that any version of the film broadcast would ‘not be a BBC film’, apologising to the doctors and contributors for not ‘telling their stories’.

‘The BBC will continue to cover events in Gaza impartially.’