LONDON — The documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack won the current affairs category at the Bafta TV Awards in London, and its makers used their acceptance speeches to condemn the BBC for dropping the film before Channel 4 acquired and broadcast it. The film was honoured at London's Royal Festival Hall nearly a year after the BBC declined to broadcast it, citing concerns over partiality.

The documentary features firsthand accounts from Palestinian health workers in Gaza. The BBC originally commissioned the film from the independent production company Basement Films more than a year ago but delayed its release while reviewing another Gaza-related documentary, Gaza: How To Survive a War Zone. Channel 4 acquired and broadcast the film in July.

Accepting the award, executive producer Ben de Pear directly addressed the broadcaster. "Finally, just a question for the BBC: Given you dropped our film, will you drop us from the Bafta screening later tonight?" he said. De Pear also spoke about the conditions faced by the production team during filming. "We woke up every day wondering if the two journalists on the ground were still alive," he said.

Journalist and presenter Ramita Navai used her speech to address the BBC's decision. "These are the findings of our investigation that the BBC paid for but refused to show. But we refuse to be silenced and censored. We thank Channel 4 for showing this film," she said.

Navai said that more than 1,700 Palestinian doctors and healthcare workers have been killed and more than 400 have been detained during Israel's war on Palestinians in Gaza. She dedicated the award to Palestinian medical workers being held in Israeli prisons.

The BBC aired the Bafta ceremony on BBC One with a delay of more than two hours. According to British media reports, the BBC edited portions of Navai's remarks from its televised broadcast after consultations with its compliance team.

In a statement, the BBC said that "broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality that would not meet the high standards that the public rightly expect of the BBC." The broadcaster said impartiality remained "a core principle of BBC News."