Posted on 05/24/2003 7:31:47 AM PDT by veronica
The BBC has insisted it will show footage of two British soldiers dead in Iraq despite a public outcry led by the victims' families.
Film of the bodies of Staff Sgt Simon Cullingworth, 36, and 24-year-old Sapper Luke Allsopp lying on a road will feature on the BBC's Correspondent programme a week tomorrow.
The soldiers' families are said to be furious at the decision and, with the support of the Ministry of Defence and a national newspaper, have asked the network not to show the footage.
A spokesman for the MoD said: "The MoD has made it very clear to the BBC that it finds it unacceptable for this footage to be broadcast and has requested their co-operation on behalf of the families.
"We are extremely disappointed at the BBC's decision to go ahead and hope that they will reconsider."
Staff Sgt Cullingworth and Sapper Allsopp went missing after their Land Rover was ambushed on March 23 and it is feared they were executed in cold blood.
Their remains were later found in a shallow grave near Al Zubayr, outside Basra in southern Iraq. Footage from the scene was broadcast on Arab TV station al-Jazeera, causing outrage in Britain.
But the BBC remained adamant today that a clip from the footage would be shown in a documentary on how western coverage of the war differed from that of al-Jazeera.
A spokesman for the corporation said: "We are going ahead with the broadcast of Correspondent. The BBC is sympathetic to the feelings of everyone who lost loved ones in the war and we do understand the distress they are going through.
"For this reason we approached the families from the outset so that they would fully understand what the programme was about."
The Sun newspaper has backed the families in urging the BBC to drop the footage.
Sgt Cullingworth's widow, Alison, told the newspaper: "I'm very upset and annoyed the BBC should show the film of Simon and Luke at this time of great sadness for my family. Do these people really care about the welfare of those who have lost loved ones?"
The BBC spokesman said the original scheduling of the programme was changed because it coincided with the funerals of some of the soldiers killed in the war. It will now be shown on BBC2 on Sunday June 1.
The spokesman added: "Correspondent explores the influence of al-Jazeera and the differences in reporting between the Arab media and the West, and therefore it is impossible to demonstrate these differences without showing some of this footage.
"But we have kept it to a minimum - literally a couple of seconds and there are no close ups and those featured are heavily disguised (pixellated)."
Sgt Cullingworth, from Essex, and Sapper Allsopp, from north London, were members of the 33 Engineer Regiment, a specialist bomb disposal unit of the Royal Engineers.
The BBC has to be kidding!
Outside of the few "fair and balanced" news outlets, the anti-war, anti-America reporting and analysis produced by the leftist western world media differed from al-Jazeera's war coverage only in style.
The BBC was one of the prime offenders, so much so that one of its own reporters in the field criticized his employer's bias and propaganda in harsh terms.
What gall on the part of the BBC.
Leni
-archy-/-
No.
These are contradictory statements. If the BBC was truly sympathetic to the loved ones of fallen British soldiers and understood their distress, it would not broadcast images of their corpses. However noble the BBC's pretensions, this is a premeditated act of desecration. That it will be committed for profit makes it all the more despicable.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.