The BBC has scrapped plans to air a Gaza-focused documentary over fears it could breach its impartiality guidelines, after senior contributors made inflammatory public remarks about Israel.
The film, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, was commissioned by the BBC but produced by independent company Basement Films. It was pulled after co-director Ramita Navai called Israel “a rogue state… committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing” during an appearance on BBC Radio 4. Her fellow director Ben de Pear also accused the corporation of “failing as an institution” and blamed Director General Tim Davie directly, saying: “If it’s failing on [news and current affairs], then it needs new management.”
On Friday, the BBC confirmed it would no longer broadcast the programme. It said airing the film “risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC”. Ownership has been transferred to the filmmakers.
In its statement, the broadcaster added the film “had not undergone final pre-broadcast sign-off” and would “not be a BBC film”.
Basement Films criticised the move, claiming the documentary had cleared compliance checks and been given six different air dates. “Although the BBC are now taking their names off this film, it will remain theirs,” the company said. “We hope it serves to open up the debate on how the nation’s broadcaster covers what is happening in Gaza.”
The fallout triggered an open letter signed by dozens of high-profile cultural figures, including Susan Sarandon, Juliet Stevenson, Maxine Peake, Miriam Margolyes, Dame Harriet Walter and filmmaker Mike Leigh. They accused the BBC of “political suppression”, writing: “This is not editorial caution. No news organisation should quietly decide behind closed doors whose stories are worth telling.”
“This important film should be seen by the public, and its contributors’ bravery honoured,” the letter continued.
The controversy follows the earlier removal of another Gaza documentary from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.
In response to mounting criticism, the BBC defended its record. “We totally reject this characterisation of our coverage,” it said, citing its award-winning Life and Death in Gaza, and original investigations into both Israeli military conduct and Palestinian abuses. “The BBC will continue to cover events in Gaza impartially.”
