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The BBC has dropped its previous commitment to broadcast the Gaza documentary Gaza: Medics Under Fire “as soon as possible”, Byline Times has learnt. It constitutes a shift that comes after weeks of mounting criticism and controversy.
The documentary, produced by Basement Films, captures the harrowing experiences of Palestinian medics working under Israeli bombardment. It has been “fact checked, complied and signed off multiple times within the BBC” according to the filmmakers and yet remains shelved pending an internal review.
Meanwhile on 7 June, Ben de Pear, the former Channel4 news editor and executive on the film, wrote on LinkedIn that “the (film), for the BBC, on the destruction of the Gazan health care system, has been on production for 15 months now and was supposed to be released four months ago. In the months it has been delayed another 500 medics have been killed. Its release has been repeatedly delayed and postponed several times; now indefinitely.”
Until recently, the BBC had insisted that the delay was temporary. In a statement issued in April, the corporation said: “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.”
However, in a new statement to Byline Times, the BBC removed the phrase “we will broadcast it as soon as possible”. It now reads: “We have taken an editorial decision not to broadcast this documentary while we have an ongoing review into a previous documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. We understand the importance of telling these stories and know that the current process is difficult for those involved.”
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The omission of a timeline or firm commitment to broadcast has raised fresh concerns among supporters of the film, who argue the change signals a retreat from the BBC’s earlier pledge to air it.
The shift comes as the BBC faces growing pressure from both inside and outside the organisation to explain why the film has not been shown.
The decision to delay Gaza: Medics Under Fire has prompted accusations of political censorship. More than 600 figures in the arts and media, including actors Susan Sarandon, Harriet Walter, and Miriam Margolyes, signed an open letter criticising the BBC’s handling of the film.
The letter claims: “Every day this film is delayed, the BBC fails in its commitment to inform the public, fails in its journalistic responsibility to report the truth, and fails in its duty of care to these brave contributors. No news organisation should quietly decide behind closed doors whose stories are worth telling. This important film should be seen by the public, and its contributors’ bravery honoured.”
Basement Films says it is “deeply disappointed” by the BBC’s continued delays.
In a statement, the company said: “We gathered searing testimony from multiple Palestinian doctors and healthworkers who had survived attacks on hospitals and their homes that killed both colleagues and loved ones.
We also spoke to multiple medics who had been detained and testified they had been tortured, and we made solemn undertakings that their stories would be told, and done so as soon as possible
Basement Films
The documentary, which was completed and cleared for broadcast in February, features first-hand testimony from Palestinian doctors and health workers who have worked in some of Gaza’s most dangerous and devastated hospitals.
The delay is linked to a separate controversy involving the BBC’s earlier documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone. That film was withdrawn from the BBC’s online platform after it was revealed that the father of its 13-year-old narrator, Abdullah al-Yazuri, was a technocrat in Gaza’s Hamas-run government.
The revelation prompted criticism from the Israeli embassy in London and some British ministers, leading the BBC to launch an internal review.
The film’s indefinite delay comes at a particularly sensitive time for the broadcaster. Earlier this year, the chair of the BBC, Samir Shah, described the failings of Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone as a “dagger to the heart” of the broadcaster’s claims of impartiality and trustworthiness.
The controversy has put BBC journalists and editors in a difficult position as they try to balance the corporation’s editorial standards with demands for transparency and political neutrality.
Basement Films is reported to have said it has received offers from other broadcasters and platforms to show the film.
“We have many offers from broadcasters and platforms across the world so that the searing testimonies of Gazan medics and of surviving family members can be heard, in some cases eight months after we spoke to them,” the company said.
“We are still urging BBC News to do the right thing.”
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As of today, there is still no confirmed date for when Gaza: Medics Under Fire might be broadcast, nor any clear indication of how long the BBC’s review of the earlier film will take.
What is clear is that the omission of the phrase “as soon as possible” marks a change in the broadcaster’s public posture—one that will do little to reassure those who fear that some voices from Gaza may never be heard.