Filmmakers behind Gaza: Doctors Under Attack used their BAFTA TV Award win on Sunday to publicly rebuke the BBC, accusing it of silencing a documentary that lays bare Israel’s assault on Gaza’s medical sector throughout the genocide.
The film, originally commissioned by the BBC before being dropped last June, went on to win best current affairs programme after Channel 4 stepped in to broadcast it.
Accepting the award, presenter Ramita Navai said the public broadcaster had “paid for” the documentary but “refused to show it.”
“But we refused to be silenced and censored,” she said. “We thank Channel 4 for showing this film.”
The documentary’s content makes clear why it proved controversial. It opens with footage recovered from the phone of a Palestinian medic killed under intense Israeli gunfire, immediately placing Israel’s targeting of Gaza’s healthcare system at the centre of the narrative.
"Israel has been killing the very people trying to keep [Gaza's] healthcare system alive," Navai says in the film.
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Throughout, the documentary highlights repeated Israeli military claims, often noting that no evidence was provided. The framing directly challenges longstanding narratives used to justify attacks on hospitals in Gaza, which have been widely condemned by rights groups as violations of international law.
The BBC pulled the film weeks before its scheduled broadcast, citing concerns over impartiality. Deborah Turness, then head of news and current affairs, pointed to alleged social media activity by one of the journalists involved and criticised Navai’s language in a radio interview as “not compatible with the BBC’s standards of impartiality.”
At the BAFTAs, executive producer Ben de Pear sharpened the criticism. “Given you dropped the film, will you drop us from the BAFTA screening?” he said, referencing the BBC’s role in broadcasting a delayed version of the ceremony.
The remarks underscore growing accusations that the BBC has systematically sidelined and censored Palestinian voices while amplifying Israeli narratives during the war on Gaza.
In its earlier statement, the BBC defended its decision, saying it had worked to tell the doctors’ stories but concluded that airing Israeli crimes “risked creating a perception of partiality.”
“We want to thank the doctors and contributors and we are sorry we could not tell their stories. The BBC will continue to cover events in Gaza impartially,” it said.
