BBC paid for a Gaza documentary, refused to air it, then had to broadcast the filmmakers winning a Bafta and calling out the corporation live on stage

The BBC was put in an uncomfortable position at the Bafta TV Awards after a Gaza documentary it had rejected won the current affairs category. Channel 4’s Gaza: Doctors Under Attack took home the award, a year after the BBC originally commissioned the film but then chose not to air it. The filmmakers used their time on stage to publicly call out the BBC.

The BBC had pulled the documentary over concerns that it could harm the broadcaster’s reputation. Channel 4 then picked it up and broadcast it in July last year. The film’s presenter, Ramita Navai, reported that 1,700 Palestinian doctors and healthcare workers had been killed in Israeli bombing of Gaza’s hospitals, and that a further 400 had been imprisoned, findings that came from the BBC-funded investigation the corporation refused to show.

According to The Telegraph, in her acceptance speech, Navai said, “These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for but refused to show. But we refused to be silenced and censored, and we thank Channel 4 for showing this film.” The film’s producer, Ben de Pear, then added, “Just a question for the BBC: given that you dropped our film, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?”

The BBC’s handling of the Gaza documentary has seriously damaged its standing on impartiality

The Bafta ceremony aired on BBC One on a two-hour delay, and the BBC chose to broadcast an edited version of Navai’s speech that removed her claims about Israel’s actions. The BBC has faced strong criticism for how it handled the documentary. The film’s producers said there were no factual inaccuracies in the film and that they received no complaints from viewers after it aired on Channel 4.

Despite this, the BBC went ahead with dropping the film, citing impartiality concerns. The BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, has admitted that covering the conflict is difficult, saying the editorial decisions involved are “as tough as it gets.” In a speech to staff earlier this month, Davie also said that no one should be falling out with friends and family members over defending the BBC’s coverage of the conflict.

However, many staff members have said they feel uncomfortable defending the corporation’s position. This is not the first time the BBC has faced scrutiny over sensitive interviews, a BBC anchor recently challenged Tucker Carlson for platforming a Holocaust denier on his show.

The BBC has denied allegations of bias and said it works to provide balanced coverage of the conflict. But the corporation has faced criticism from both sides, some say it has been too soft on Israel, while others say it has been biased against the country. The public rejection by the documentary’s team at such a high-profile event made the situation harder to manage. 

A separate BBC investigation into another Gaza-related program, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, is set to be published soon, reports The Guardian. That will be followed by a wider “thematic review” into the corporation’s Middle East coverage.

Both developments mean the scrutiny on the BBC is unlikely to go away anytime soon. The fallout from the documentary’s rejection has clearly caused tension inside the BBC.Some staff members have expressed frustration and said they find it difficult to defend the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.

The BBC’s reputation for impartiality has taken a hit, and the Bafta moment only made that more visible to the public. The BBC has also recently been under fire for editing a speech that led to a $1bn lawsuit from Trump, adding further pressure on the corporation’s editorial standards.