‘We refuse to be silenced and censored,’ journalist and presenter Ramita Navai says whereas accepting the award.
Revealed On 11 Could 2026
The makers of the documentary Gaza: Medical doctors Below Assault, which was dropped by the BBC, have gained the Bafta TV Awards within the present affairs class.
The makers of the movie slammed the BBC throughout their acceptance speeches on the awards on Sunday, renewing controversy over the broadcaster’s choice to shelve the venture earlier than it was later aired by Channel 4.
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The documentary, which options firsthand accounts from Palestinian well being employees in Gaza, was honoured at London’s Royal Pageant Corridor almost a 12 months after the BBC declined to broadcast it, citing issues over partiality.
Accepting the award, govt producer Ben de Pear thanked the journalists behind the movie earlier than immediately addressing the BBC, which aired the Bafta ceremony on BBC One with a delay of greater than two hours: “Lastly, only a query for the BBC: Given you dropped our movie, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?”
Journalist and presenter Ramita Navai additionally criticised the broadcaster throughout her speech, citing findings from the documentary’s investigation into assaults on Gaza’s healthcare system.
“These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for however refused to indicate,” Navai stated. “However we refuse to be silenced and censored. We thank Channel 4 for exhibiting this movie.”
Navai stated greater than 1,700 Palestinian docs and healthcare employees have been killed and greater than 400 have been detained throughout Israel’s genocidal warfare on Palestinians in Gaza. She devoted the award to Palestinian medical employees being held in Israeli prisons.
Initially commissioned by BBC
In response to British media reviews, the BBC edited parts of Navai’s remarks from its televised broadcast after consultations with its compliance group.
The BBC initially commissioned the documentary from the impartial manufacturing firm Basement Movies greater than a 12 months in the past however delayed its launch whereas conducting a overview into one other Gaza-related documentary, Gaza: How To Survive a Battle Zone.
The broadcaster later determined to not air Gaza: Medical doctors Below Assault, saying the movie risked creating “a notion of partiality that may not meet the excessive requirements that the general public rightly count on of the BBC”.
The company additionally stated impartiality remained “a core precept of BBC Information”.
The movie was subsequently acquired and broadcast by Channel 4 in July.
Talking backstage after the Bafta win, de Pear praised Gazan journalists Jaber Badwan and Osana Al Ashi, who contributed footage to the documentary, saying the group “awoke daily questioning if the 2 journalists on the bottom have been nonetheless alive”.
