Last night was the annual BAFTA awards in the UK. Like many such prizes these days it’s all a bit of self congratulatory nonsense amongst the usual suspects. Though it still helps for juniors making their way up the greasy pole albeit for longer hours and less pay to have a credit but every now and again a decision is made that actually matters. In this case the documentary award to Gaza filmmakers that was ‘shelved’ by the BBC before being picked up by CH4. Sadly, such influence on the national broadcaster is all too well known but still shame on them.
The situation in Gaza, as we know, remains dire and such horrors are now being extended to the West Bank and Lebanon and rather than highlight this the MSM in the UK can spend days making a tragedy into a ‘terrorist’ event it was not. For it, they omitted in their reports, actually began with the stabbing of a Muslim man, that fact as inconvenient as the perpetrator’s mental illness. Nor did they report the stabbing of an Iranian man protesting against war and in support of Iran. I abhor all of the violence regardless, but the complicity by most especially the national broadcaster is a breach of its own charter. The ‘shelving’ of an important film par for the course.
So when the few try to silence the many, as is happening in the UK, when as has been said “if we do not have international law we have barbarism”, I applaud the film makers brave enough to take a stand.
However well deserved, even a prize winning film has to work damn hard in this environment to make a difference. As Starmer struggles to hold onto power I don’t see any of the hungry circling around him ready to take over with anything meaningful in terms of either supporting the rights of protesters let alone those currently being slaughtered, starved and displaced.
It is not about being pro and anti, it should be about our humanity and if those in charge be they in government or the BBC can’t see that then they are underserving of their position.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/11/gaza-filmmakers-slam-bbc-after-shelved-documentary-wins-bafta