BBC accused of political censorship over failure to release Gaza medics documentary
The BBC has been accused of "political censorship" as it faces increasing pressure to broadcast a film it commissioned about Palestinian doctors working in Gaza.
Over 600 prominent figures from the arts and media, including British film director Mike Leigh, Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Lindsey Hilsum, the international editor of Channel 4 News, have signed an open letter calling on the corporation to release Gaza: Medics Under Fire, which has been ready for broadcast since February.
The letter, sent to BBC Director-General Tim Davie on Monday, criticises the BBC for withholding the documentary, which tells the stories of Palestinian doctors working in Gaza under Israeli bombardment, despite months of editorial reviews and fact-checking.
"We stand with the medics of Gaza whose voices are being silenced. Their urgent stories are being buried by bureaucracy and political censorship," the letter reads.
"This is not editorial caution. It’s political suppression. The BBC has provided no timeline, no transparency. Such decisions reinforce the systemic devaluation of Palestinian lives in our media."
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Other well-known signatories to the letter include the actors Miriam Margolyes, Harriet Walter, Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, and the comedians Alexei Sayle and Frankie Boyle. Among 130 anonymous signatories are more than a dozen BBC staff.
Despite being signed off by the British broadcaster's lawyers, Gaza: Medics Under Fire, which was made by Oscar-nominated, Emmy and Peabody award-winning filmmakers, including Ben de Pear, Karim Shah and Ramita Navai, has not been aired because of a furore that erupted over another BBC documentary on children in Gaza, entitled How to Survive a Warzone.
The BBC launched a review into that film after the Israeli embassy in London and British ministers criticised it after it was revealed that the father of its 13-year-old narrator, Abdullah al-Yazuri, was a technocrat in Gaza's Hamas-administered government.
'This is not editorial caution. It’s political suppression. The BBC has provided no timeline, no transparency. Such decisions reinforce the systemic devaluation of Palestinian lives in our media'
- Letter to BBC
The new film has been signed off by the broadcaster's lawyers, and the BBC reportedly abandoned an earlier plan to screen the film despite the legal review.
The signatories to the letter express their "deep concern about the censorship of Palestinian voices - this time, medics operating in unimaginable conditions in Gaza", and argue that the BBC "continues to demonstrate bias in its reporting and coverage of events in Gaza, raising continued concern and criticism about the balance and impartiality of its journalism in this region."
Health Workers 4 Palestine, a grassroots movement of health workers, said in their statement: “The health workers featured in this documentary have witnessed countless colleagues being killed, and have risked their lives not only to care for their patients, but to document and expose the relentless targeting by Israel of healthcare infrastructure and personnel.”
The production company, Basement Films, said in a statement: “We gathered searing testimony from multiple Palestinian doctors and health care workers…We are desperate for a confirmed release date in order to be able to tell the surviving doctors and medics when their stories will be told.”
A spokesperson for the BBC said: "We are committed to journalism which tells our audiences the stories of this war, including what is happening in Gaza.
"This documentary is a powerful piece of reporting and we will broadcast it as soon as possible. We have taken an editorial decision not to do so while we have an ongoing review into a previous documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone."
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