BBC Scraps Pledge to Show Gaza Medics Documentary ‘As Soon as Possible’

The corporation has shelved plans to broadcast the harrowing Gaza: Medics Under Fire film pending an ‘ongoing review’ into its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict in another programme. Iain Overton reports

The BBC has dropped its previous commitment to broadcast the documentary Gaza: Medics Under Fire “as soon as possible”, Byline Times has learned – a shift in position that followed weeks of mounting criticism of its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict.

The documentary, produced by Basement Films, captures the experiences of Palestinian medics working under Israeli bombardment. According to the film-makers, it has been “fact-checked, complied, and signed-off multiple times within the BBC” – but it remains shelved pending an internal review into another documentary.

On 7 June, Ben de Pear, the former Editor of Channel 4 News and an executive on the film, wrote on LinkedIn that “the (documentary), for the BBC, on the destruction of the Gazan healthcare system, has been in 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”.

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