Channel 4 to screen Gaza documentary the BBC wouldn't show
Channel 4 will this week broadcast a documentary about medics in Gaza that was dropped by the BBC over concerns it 'risked creating a perception of partiality' in the corporation's coverage of the conflict.
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, which will air on Wednesday evening, examines allegations that Israeli forces have targeted hospitals and healthcare workers in the territory in breach of international law.
Channel 4 described the documentary, which was made by the independent production company Basement Films, as 'a forensic investigation'.
Louisa Compton, Channel 4's head of news and current affairs, who acquired the documentary, said: 'We are showing this programme because we believe that, following thorough fact-checking and verification, we are presenting a duly impartial view of a subject that both divides opinion and frequently provokes dispute about what constitutes a fact.
'The result is harrowing … It will make people angry, whichever side they take, or if they take no side. But while we would never judge anyone who decides that showing something could create a risk of being thought to be taking sides, we believe there are times when the same risk is run by not showing anything at all.'
The BBC commissioned the film last year and was initially supposed to broadcast it earlier this year. Executives first shelved the documentary until an investigation into a previous film on the region had concluded, then scrapped it entirely on June 20. It is understood that the corporation had been particularly concerned that posts on social media by some of the documentary makers could contravene the BBC's commitment to impartiality.
The day before it was axed, one of its co-directors, the Emmy award-winning journalist Ramita Navai, appeared on BBC Radio 4's Today programme to talk about the Iran-Israel conflict. Segueing into speaking about Gaza, Navai said: 'The world has been watching as Israel has become a rogue state that is committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass-murdering Palestinians.'
The presenter Amol Rajan responded that many listeners would 'take issue' with her description of Israel's actions, to which Navai replied: 'That isn't my opinion. I have been investigating it for a year and a half, actually, for a documentary for the BBC investigating Israel's war crimes. I've collected lots of evidence of that.'
Ben de Pear, the founder of Basement Films and a former editor of Channel 4 News, had also criticised the BBC and its director-general, Tim Davie, for not running the film. Speaking at Sheffield DocFest earlier this month, de Pear said: 'All the decisions about our film were not taken by journalists, they were taken by Tim Davie. He is just a PR person. Tim Davie is taking editorial decisions which, frankly, he is not capable of making.'
The film had been scrutinised by BBC legal and compliance teams, but the corporation said the documentary had not undergone its 'final pre-broadcast sign-off processes'. The delay to its release caused an outcry among BBC journalists.
At a recent BBC staff town hall, Davie was repeatedly questioned about the decision, which was the most common staff concern raised, ahead of pay and redundancies. Production was first paused following the scandal over Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, which was made by a different company, Hoyo Films. After it emerged that the narrator was the son of a deputy agriculture minister in the Hamas-run government, the film was pulled from the BBC's iPlayer. It is now the subject of an internal BBC investigation, the findings of which are expected to be published next month.
Channel 4 said that the film had been fact-checked to ensure it meets its editorial standards and the Ofcom Broadcasting Code.
Basement Films added: 'We want to apologise to the contributors and team for the long delay and thank Channel 4 for enabling it to be seen.'
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The inconsistent manner in which guidance is applied draws into focus the role of Sir Robbie Gibb, on the BBC Board and BBC's Editorial Standards Committee. We are concerned that an individual with close ties to the Jewish Chronicle, an outlet that has repeatedly published anti-Palestinian and often racist content, has a say in the BBC's editorial decisions in any capacity, including the decision not to broadcast 'Gaza: Medics Under Fire'. This conflict of interest highlights a double standard for BBC content makers who have themselves experienced censorship in the name of 'impartiality'. In some instances staff have been accused of having an agenda because they have posted news articles critical of the Israeli government on their social media. By comparison, Gibb remains in an influential post with little transparency regarding his decisions despite his ideological leanings being well known. We can no longer ask license fee payers to overlook Gibbs' ideological allegiances. 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