UPDATE, 12.56 p.m. PT: The BBC has aired Ramita Navai’s impassioned BAFTA TV Award acceptance speech after she called out the broadcaster for dropping her prize-winning doc, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack.
Earlier this evening in the UK, journalist and filmmaker Navai accused the BBC of censorship around Gaza: Doctors Under Attack after Gaza won a BAFTA for Current Affairs. Her words were included in an award winners highlights package moments ago on BBC One, as were those of executive director Ben de Pear, who made a direct challenge to the BBC to air the speech.
The BAFTA TV Awards are broadcasted on a two-hour time delay.
PREVIOUS, 10.53 a.m. PT: The team behind Channel 4 documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack has launched a scathing attack on the BBC after winning a BAFTA TV Award.
The BBC dropped the Ramita Navai-hosted film in June 2025, citing impartiality concerns. The documentary, spotlighting the plight of medics in Gaza, was later aired by Channel 4.
On Sunday night, Doctors Under Attack won the BAFTA TV Award for Current Affairs, with Navai directly calling out the BBC in her acceptance speech.
Rattling off figures regarding the number of people killed in Gaza by Israel, Navai said they were the findings of a film “that the BBC paid for and refused to show.”
“We refused to be silenced and censored,” she added. “We thank Channel 4 for showing this film.”
Ben De Pear, the executive producer of Gaza: Doctors Under Attack for Basement Films, then dared the BBC to edit the remarks from the ceremony, which is shown on BBC One on a two-hour time delay. “Given you dropped the film, will you drop us from the BAFTA screening?” he asked.
In a statement at the time of dropping the documentary, the BBC said: “We have come to the conclusion that broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC.
“Impartiality is a core principle of BBC News. It is one of the reasons that we are the world’s most trusted broadcaster. Therefore, we are transferring ownership of the film material to Basement Films.”
The corporation continued: “We want to thank the doctors and contributors and we are sorry we could not tell their stories. The BBC will continue to cover events in Gaza impartially.”
Responding at the time, Basement Films claimed that the BBC had approved Doctors Under Attack for broadcast and it was considered a “vital piece of public service journalism.”
“They gave us no less than six different release dates, and it was subjected to a long and repeated compliance process as well as scrupulous fact checking,” Basement said. “They then apologised and reversed their position.”
Jesse Whittock contributed to this article.
