Bob Vylan row distracts from the BBC’s conflict of interests

The BBC struggles to get anything right about Gaza. Last week, it decided not to broadcast a searing documentary about Palestinian doctors under attack, citing vague concerns about “a perception of partiality”.

- ALAN RUSBRIDGER

This week, it’s the coverage of Glastonbury and why no one was alert enough to press the mute button on a rap-punk duo called Bob Vylan.

Though it has garnered less outrage, the former smacks of either editorial naivety or institutional cowardice. But, fortunately, the top brass at Channel 4 appear to have more backbone and the film, Gaza: Doctors Under Attack, will be shown tonight. People can judge for themselves.

It seems to me to be exactly the sort of documentary the BBC should broadcast. The film graphically shows the horrors of working in Gaza hospitals these past 21 months in an unflinching and quietly devastating light. It documents a litany of death, violence, cruelty, suffering and inhumanity. There are allegations of the targeting, abduction, torture and effective murder of doctors and nurses, along with denials by the Israeli army that it has been involved in any such things.

No Western media organisation has been allowed free access to Gaza, which makes it doubly complicated to tell the whole truth about what has been happening in a war in which 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced, at least 56,156 Palestinians have been killed and 132,239 have been injured. And, yes, these are Gaza ministry of health figures, and the ministry of health is controlled by Hamas. But that’s all we have.

There is quite a collective of organisations and individuals who monitor the media round the clock for any whisper of anti-Israel “bias”. And we can confidently expect the Gaza medics film to be attacked within hours of broadcast. I would expect there to be criticism of the social media feed of the highly experienced freelance reporter Ramita Navai, who has described Israel as a “rogue state that’s committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing and mass-murdering Palestinians”.