Tonight, audiences can finally watch Gaza: Doctors Under Attack on Channel 4 and Zeteo. This timely film was originally produced for the BBC by award-winning production company Basement Films. The BBC has been delaying it since February, arguing it couldn’t go out before a review into an entirely different film, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, had culminated. That was a poor editorial decision with no precedent. But poorer still: after months of leaving the film in limbo, last week the BBC announced it wouldn’t air it – leaving it for Channel 4 to pick up.

Why? The BBC said it might create “the perception of partiality”. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was lifted from a dystopian novel. Perception, after all, has nothing to do with impartiality – at least in an ideal world. The BBC seems to have said the quiet part out loud. Impartiality, as far as it’s concerned, is about PR, optics and managing the anger of certain groups, rather than following the evidence and championing robust journalism – no matter who’s angered, no matter how it looks.

More than 100 BBC journalists have now anonymously signed a letter, calling the choice not to broadcast Gaza: Doctors Under Attack a “political decision” that doesn’t reflect the quality of journalism in the film. The BBC, they say, is “an organisation crippled by the fear of being perceived as critical of the Israeli government”. The letter says the decision not to air this film came straight from the top, and many BBC staff – junior and senior – are unhappy with it. They feel it doesn’t reflect........

© The Guardian