‘We Refuse to Be Silenced’: Gaza Doctors Documentary Censored by BBC Wins Prestigious Award
Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
“Just a question to the BBC,” said the documentary’s executive producer. “Given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the BAFTAs screening later tonight?”
The makers of a documentary about Israeli attacks on healthcare workers and infrastructure in Gaza won a prestigious BAFTA award on Sunday—and they used their acceptance speech to lash out at BBC for refusing to air their work.
The film, “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,” was originally scheduled to be aired by the BBC in early 2025 before the network announced in June that it would not be releasing the documentary because it had “come to the conclusion that broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality.”
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Shortly after, the documentary was picked up by the UK-based Channel 4 and aired in July.
UK journalist Ramita Navai, the main reporter of the documentary, criticized the BBC for declining to show the film, which she denounced as a political decision.
“Israel has killed over 47,000 children and women in Gaza so far,” Navai said. “Israel has… 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 a ‘medicide.’ These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for but refuses to show. But we refuse to be silenced and censored.”
Ben de Pear, the film’s executive producer, also pointed the finger at the BBC as he accepted the BAFTA award for best current affairs television program.
“Just a question to the BBC,” said de Pear, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “Given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the BAFTAs screening later tonight?”
As reported by Al Jazeera, de Pear after accepting the award also praised Palestinian journalists Jaber Badwan and Osana Al Ashi, who contributed on-the-ground footage for the documentary at the risk of their own lives.
“[We] woke up every day wondering if the two journalists on the ground were still alive,” de Pear told reporters backstage.
Article by Brad Reed republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).
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