EXCLUSIVE: The BBC tried to insert a clause into the Gaza: Doctors Under Attack contract preventing the doc’s producer and others from being “disparaging” of the corporation or suggesting the final version that appeared on Channel 4 was “authorised or approved by the BBC.”
Deadline has seen a copy of the amended clause, which Gaza: Doctors Under Attack producer Ben de Pear said on LinkedIn yesterday he refused to sign, describing it as a “double gagging clause.” The doc was commissioned by the BBC but ended up with Channel 4 this week after the BBC said “broadcasting this material risked creating a perception of partiality.”
The amendment states the producer, Basement Films, which is run by de Pear, will “ensure any statements issued or authorised by third party licensees of any version of the Programme are not disparaging of the BBC.”
There should also be no statements from the producer or third party licensees such as Channel 4 that “imply that any version of the Programme was authorised or approved by the BBC, or would not be broadcast or published by the BBC,” it adds.
The clause, which was an amendment to the general terms of the BBC’s standard commissioning agreement, would also have prevented the producer from “issuing or authorising others to issue any press releases or public statements relating to the programme without the prior written consent of the BBC.”
The BBC’s original position was that it was a standard clause to agree third party statements and marketing, but now there is an acknowledgement that the phrasing was more bespoke.
Deadline’s story comes a day after ex-Channel 4 news boss de Pear took to LinkedIn to say he “rejected and refused to sign the double gagging clause the BBC bosses tried multiple times to get me to sign.”
“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,” he wrote. “Not only could we not tell the truth that was already stated, but neither could others… Reader, I didn’t sign it, and I spoke the truth at Sheffield, and I felt better. If you work at the BBC you should try it, if you can.”
A BBC source denied that de Pear had been gagged or prevented from speaking about the film’s journey. They said the amendment concerns marketing and publicity materials. Its intention was that, once the BBC had returned the doc to Basement Films, Doctors Under Attack shouldn’t be marketed as being a BBC film as it hadn’t undergone the corporation’s pre-broadcast checks, the source added.
De Pear’s reference to Sheffield alludes to his recent appearance at the Sheffield Doc Fest where he lambasted BBC Director General Tim Davie, calling him “just a PR person,” who has meddled in editorial decisions and is leading an organization that is “failing” in its duty to report on the Gaza crisis properly. Yesterday, ex-Match of the Day host Gary Lineker said the BBC should “hold its head in shame” for not airing the Gaza doc. Davie has been further wounded this week amid the Bob Vylan Glastonbury scandal.
De Pear’s LinkedIn post came after the doc aired on Channel 4 to a strong set of reviews and a peak of more than 300,000 viewers on Wednesday night. The doc’s fate had been unknown for weeks before late last month the BBC said: “We have come to the conclusion 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.”
At the same time, the BBC has been investigating a different Gaza doc, How to Survive a Warzone, which was revealed after it aired to have featured the son of a Hamas minister. A report into that doc is due imminently.
On LinkedIn, de Pear claimed the BBC has an issue with the “politics” around its programming decisions.
“Channel 4’s team are purely about those two pillars of broadcast journalism; balance and accuracy,” he added. “The BBC currently have a third; politics, and they comply from that first and foremost, and it is ruining them.”
The BBC declined comment on contract negotiations.
