DUBAI: More than 600 prominent figures from the film and media industries have signed an open letter urging the BBC to broadcast the delayed documentary “Gaza: Medics Under Fire.”
The signatories include actors such as Susan Sarandon, Indira Varma, Miriam Margolyes, Maxine Peake and Juliet Stevenson, along with journalists, filmmakers and other industry professionals. One-hundred-and-thirty of them chose to remain anonymous; at least 12 were said to be BBC staff members.
The letter, addressed to BBC Director General Tim Davie, states: “Every day this film is delayed, the BBC fails in its commitment to inform the public, fails in its journalistic responsibility to report the truth, and fails in its duty of care to these brave contributors.
“No news organization should quietly decide behind closed doors whose stories are worth telling.”
The film was originally scheduled to air in January. BBC bosses said they decided to delay it while an investigation is carried out into another documentary, “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone,” which was pulled from the schedules when it emerged that the narrator of that film is the son of a Hamas official.
Samir Shah, chairperson of the BBC, said this revelation was “a dagger to the heart of the BBC’s claim to be impartial and to be trustworthy” and that was why he and fellow board members were “determined to ask the questions.”
The writers of the letter said: “This is not editorial caution. It’s political suppression. The BBC has provided no timeline, no transparency. Such decisions reinforce the systemic devaluation of Palestinian lives in our media.”
“Gaza: Medics Under Fire” production company Basement Films said in the letter that it was “desperate for a confirmed release date in order to be able to tell the surviving doctors and medics when their stories will be told.”
The document concluded with a demand for the film to be released “NOW.”
A spokesperson for the BBC told Variety magazine the documentary will be broadcast “as soon as possible,” but the organization had taken “an editorial decision not to do so” while there was an “ongoing review” of the other Gaza-related film.
