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BBC accused of 'spurious' defence over Gaza documentary axe
Welcome to Media Watch. This week we look at the BBC's decision to axe a documentary on Gaza's health service as well as a Sky News reporter being accused of 'parroting propaganda' in his questioning of the Israeli ambassador to the UK.
BBC's 'spurious' defence after axing documentary
THE BBC has come under fire for 'censoring' the accounts of medics and aid workers in Gaza after axing a documentary about Israel's brutal bombardment.
Gaza: Doctors Under Attack explored the destruction of the health service in Gaza and was reportedly ready to be broadcast in February.
We told how the documentary was shelved last month following the controversy around How To Survive A Warzone, which featured the son of a Hamas official.
The production firm behind Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, Basement Films, said at the time that the BBC had postponed airing its film until after a review into How To Survive A Warzone is complete.
However, despite the fact that this review remains ongoing, the BBC has now officially scrapped plans to show the documentary after concluding that it "risked creating a perception of partiality" over the corporation's coverage of Israel and Gaza.
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Tom Chivers, who works for the Media Reform Coalition, said the BBC's excuse for shelving the documentary was 'spurious', adding it had 'abandoned any pretence' that it gives 'equal regard' to the lives of Palestinians.
He told The National: 'This is only the latest failure by the BBC to provide accurate, impartial and independent reporting on Israel's siege in Gaza and the appalling humanitarian crisis it has created.
'By censoring these accounts from medics and aid workers in Gaza, the BBC has abandoned any pretence that it gives equal regard to the lives and experiences of Palestinians.
'The BBC's excuse for refusing to broadcast the documentary rests on a completely made-up phrase. A 'perception of bias' has no basis whatsoever in the BBC's editorial guidelines.
'If this 'perception' test was applied to other topic of reporting, it would be impossible for the BBC to broadcast any news at all.
'This spurious, unjustifiable defence proves that the BBC is completely cowed by, and overly sensitive to, the objections of Israeli officials and those who wish to ignore or silence any reporting on the atrocities taking place in Gaza.'
The BBC said it was transferring ownership of the film material to Basement Films, and that the documentary had "not undergone the BBC's final pre-broadcast sign-off processes", as some reports had suggested.
Basement Films said it was 'relieved' that the BBC has released the film back to the company 'so that we can release it to the world'.
The company said the BBC had confirmed the film had been approved for broadcast and gave out six different release dates before eventually dropping it.
A Basement Films statement said: 'We would like to thank all the BBC people who worked on this film, those who approved it, those who praised and lauded it, and the scores of BBC staff members; on air editors, correspondents, producers, managers, technical staff and freelancers who told us to keep fighting and gave us sound advice, wrote group letters to their bosses, and asked us to keep fighting to have the film released as approved.
'Although the BBC are now taking their names off this film, it will remain theirs, and we hope it serves to open up the debate on how the nation's broadcaster covers what is happening in Gaza, and that people feel free to speak up and speak out, rather than stay silent or leave, and at some point get the journalistic leadership they deserve.
'But most of all we would like to thank the doctors and contributors and survivors, and to apologise for not believing them when they said the BBC would never run a film like this. It turned out they were right.'
Sky News reporter slated for Israeli ambassador interview
Elsewhere, Sky News reporter Wilfred Frost has been criticised for an interview he carried out with Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely.
Frost challenged Hotovely about Gazan children dying amid Israel's assault on the enclave.
Tzipi Hotovely: "We are not there to kill anyone, rather than the terrorists, but in the end of the day its Hamas that is creating this horrible architecture of children & people as human shields"
Wilfred Frost: "I think there's no doubt about that & I'm not questioning that" — Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) June 23, 2025
But he has been slated for suggesting he was 'not questioning' a statement by Hotovely that Hamas is to blame for using 'children and people as human shields'.
Appearing on Sky News on Monday, Hotovely said: "We are not there to kill anyone, rather than the terrorists, but in the end of the day it's Hamas that is creating this horrible architecture of children and people as human shields.'
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Frost replied with: 'I think there's no doubt about that and I'm not questioning that"
Also in the interview, Frost said 'we can both agree resoundingly about that' when Hotovely said 'they need to blame Hamas for creating this reality for the Palestinians'.
On the exchange, Chivers told The National: 'It's not the job of reporters to demure to government officials and repeat their propaganda, their job is to challenge them and report the truth.'
TV producer Richard Sanders described the interview as 'appalling'.
He said on Twitter/X: 'This is absolutely appalling and Sky should retract.
'There is not a scrap of evidence Hamas uses civilians as human shields. There is a mass of evidence that Israel does precisely this.
'We dealt with this issue at length in our Al Jazeera Investigative Unit film GAZA. This lie continues to be the principal justification for the slaughter of civilians in Gaza.'
On social media, Frost was accused of 'parroting propaganda', while one user said it was an example of 'why people are losing faith in traditional media'.
Sky News has been approached for comment.
