Jonathan Dimbleby brands Royal Television Society ‘cowards' for pulling Gaza award
Jonathan Dimbleby has called Royal Television Society (RTS) executives cowards for scrapping an award for journalists in Gaza because they did not want to deepen the controversy around a BBC documentary on the conflict.
The historian and presenter is one of 300 TV and film professionals who have signed a letter to the society criticising its last-minute decision not to award the prize at an awards ceremony last week, as a result of the fallout from Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
The documentary was pulled from BBC's online streaming services in February and is the subject of an internal investigation after claims emerged that Abdullah al-Yazouri, the film's 13-year-old narrator, was the son of Hamas's deputy minister of agriculture.
It also emerged that a Hamas official's daughter, who appeared to celebrate the Oct 7 attacks, was paid during its making.
Dimbleby told The Times: 'The decision is craven and the grounds on which it has been made – the fact that there is an issue around one BBC film – are specious and shallow. No journalist working in Gaza was involved in the making of that film.'
He added: 'We depend hugely on the reporting of those journalists who are in Gaza, who put their lives on the line every day, because no Western journalists can enter except on specially conducted trips.
'The RTS is rightly held in very high regard and that it should suddenly abdicate its role because it doesn't want to muddy the water is cowardly and ill-judged.'
In an email to the chairmen of the society's jury, first cited by the news website Deadline, the RTS said it did not wish to 'add fuel to the fire in this current environment'.
Adrian Wells, chairman of the RTS Television Journalism Awards, said last week: 'We had planned to award it to 'Journalists in Gaza' to recognise their enormous efforts over the last 18 months or so of extreme pressure and endeavour. However, this award, in the end will not be given on Wednesday.
'Already this has become a political football and the RTS is keen not to add fuel to the fire in this current environment.
'It is a shame that this cannot proceed but rest assured there is a very strong showing and recognition of journalism from Gaza throughout the rest of the evening.'
An RTS spokesman said: 'Investigations have recently been launched into a number of news reports from Gaza and, as those reviews are ongoing, we didn't feel it was appropriate to proceed with the award this year.'
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