BBC director-general admits to ‘bad mistake’ over Gaza documentary
By Laura Harding, Deputy Entertainment Editor
BBC director-general Tim Davie has defended the decision not to air Gaza: Doctors Under Attack and admitted the corporation made “a bad mistake” with the controversial programme Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone.
The programme about medics in the conflict was commissioned by the BBC but produced by an independent production company, and the corporation shelved it over impartiality concerns.
It was later shown on Channel 4.
'Gaza: Doctors Under Attack' is a forensic investigation into Israeli military attacks on hospitals in Gaza and allegations of targeting and abuse of doctors and healthcare workers breaching international law.
Watch tonight at 10pm on @channel4. pic.twitter.com/nQIaHYUoim— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) July 2, 2025
Appearing before MPs, Davie was asked whether the BBC had been “over-cautious” in not screening it.
He replied: “No, I think we made the right decision, but I don’t think it’s news by the way, from our side here. In terms of the work, it’s current affairs.
“There’s a slight difference in terms of a doc… it’s fairly straightforward where we were, which is we were a little bit frustrated, because clearly the voice is the medics.
“We’ve given a lot of voice on our airways, and on our news coverage, to medics working in Gaza under extreme conditions and the terrible things they’re having to face, which is horrendous, but in this film it’s pretty straightforward.”
He added: “I take your feedback if you think we’re being too cautious, but my view, and the view of the news leadership, was that we clearly had someone with a position and we needed a narrator who was a BBC journalist making sure that we weren’t open to that.
“Otherwise we could be in the same old problem, and bluntly, I know this is frustrating filmmakers.”
There are people who are facing consequences... It was a bad mistake
Davie also discussed the scandal that emerged after a report found the corporation failed to disclose information about the child narrator’s father’s position within the Hamas-run government in the BBC’s Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary.
The film, which was made for the BBC by the independent production company HOYO Films, was removed from BBC iPlayer in February after it emerged the child narrator, Abdullah, is the son of Ayman Alyazouri, who has worked as Hamas’s deputy minister of agriculture.
Davie said: “There are people who are facing consequences.”
He added: “It was a bad mistake, I think the report also says HOYO Films not disclosing that information was important to us.”
BBC chairman Samir Shad said: “It was a real mistake. What (the report) found was that we were not open and transparent about the relationship of the narrator to a Hamas official, really does go straight to heart of the BBC’s reputational risk in terms of being impartial and trustworthy.
“It was a sin of omission, which is just as serious as a sin of commission.”
Mr Davie said Gaza has been “the toughest editorial coverage challenge we’ve ever had”.
He added it is “absurd” and “unacceptable” that Israel is not allowing journalists into Gaza.
He said: “I think we should all say that not allowing journalists into Gaza is unacceptable and it really is… in my view, this is probably the toughest editorial coverage challenge we’ve ever had.”
He continued: “It’s really important that we all stand and say, ‘look we need access, because we can look at the story like aid centres or whatever and hospitals’, but there’s nothing like having a proper journalist with our standards on the ground doing the work.
“So I would ask us to get access and the idea that we can’t go into war zones is plainly absurd, because we’ve done that for years, and we know what we’re doing.”
