The producer of a film about medics in Gaza that was dropped by the BBC has accused the corporation of trying to gag him and others over its decision not to show the documentary.
Gaza: Doctors under Attack, which was finally broadcast on Channel 4 on Wednesday night, recounts how hospitals in the territory have been overwhelmed, bombed and raided. Medics recount being detained and claim to have been tortured. It had originally been due to run on the BBC.
Ben de Pear, the programme’s executive producer and a former Channel 4 News editor, accused the BBC of attempting to stop him talking about its “painful journey” to the screen with the use of legal gagging clauses.
“I rejected and refused to sign the double gagging clause the BBC bosses tried multiple times to get me to sign,” he said in a post on LinkedIn. “Not only could we have been sued for saying the BBC refused to air the film (palpably and provably true) but also if any other company had said it, the BBC could sue us.
“Not only could we not tell the truth that was already stated, but neither could others. Reader, I didn’t sign it.”
Instead, he said, he spoke out, criticising the BBC’s director general, Tim Davie, at a conference in Sheffield over the decision to pull the film. “All the decisions about our film were not taken by journalists, they were taken by Tim Davie,” he said at the time. “He is just a PR person. Tim Davie is taking editorial decisions which, frankly, he is not capable of making.
“The BBC’s primary purpose is TV news and current affairs, and if it’s failing on that it doesn’t matter what drama it makes or sports it covers. It is failing as an institution. And if it’s failing on that then it needs new management.”
The BBC did not comment on the accusations. An insider said Basement Films, De Pear’s production company, had only been asked to sign a standard clause obliging producers to have the corporation’s permission before engaging in publicity around one of its shows. It is understood this is disputed by Basement Films.
BBC sources suggested the broadcaster had been attempting to find ways to use the documentary material in news coverage, but a final decision was made to drop the film entirely after De Pear’s public comments in Sheffield. This timeline is also disputed. Once the BBC handed control back to Basement Films, a BBC source said it ceased to be the broadcaster’s film.
They also argued it was untrue the BBC had tried to gag De Pear from speaking about the film, pointing to public statements he made about it. They also pointed to the BBC’s public statement, made last month, clearly stating it had dropped the project.
De Pear’s comments follow the publication of a letter signed anonymously by more than 100 BBC staff criticising the decision to drop the film. The letter also questioned the role of Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s former spin doctor and a member of the BBC’s board and editorial standards committee.
Gibb led the consortium that bought the Jewish Chronicle in 2020 and, up until August 2024, was a director of Jewish Chronicle Media. The BBC has said he had no “formal role” over the decisions made in relation to the Gaza film.
Before dropping the medics documentary entirely, the BBC said it had delayed its broadcast until a report into the making of another documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, had been completed.
That programme was pulled from iPlayer earlier this year after it emerged that its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official. The review into its production continues.