BBC 'cruel' to show dead soldiers, say families

[may18]

By Adam Lusher and Sean Rayment

The families of two British soldiers killed in Iraq last night accused the BBC of cruelty for planning to show film of the men lying dead.

Relatives of Sapper Luke Allsopp, 24, and S/Sgt Simon Cullingworth, 36, denied the BBC's claim that the corporation had sought their approval to broadcast the images.

Sapper Luke Allsopp The footage will be screened next Sunday when the BBC2 series Correspondent examines the influence of the Gulf cable channel al-Jazeera and the differences in reporting between the Arab media and the West.

During the war, Britain and the US complained that the al-Jazeera pictures of the two soldiers, and other dead Coalition troops, broke the Geneva Convention. Tony Blair was said to have reacted with "horror" when the footage was first shown.

Group Captain Al Lockwood, a British military spokesman, said at the time: "This is a flagrant and disgraceful breach of the Geneva Convention."

The BBC said yesterday that it was "sympathetic to the feelings of everyone who lost loved ones", and that it had "approached the families so that they would understand what the programme was about."

But Nina Allsopp, Sapper Allsopp's sister, told The Telegraph that the family had no idea that his body would be seen. She said: "The BBC asked me to appear but they didn't mention they would show the footage of Luke. I only found out from his commanding officer."

Miss Allsopp said that airing the pictures would violate her brother's memory. "This is how Britain will remember him: not as a soldier who died in a war doing a job he loved, but as someone lying dead on the ground by a vehicle.

"The fact that his face will be pixilated [obscured] doesn't make any difference. There is no dignity in it." The Ministry of Defence has also complained about the programme.

Brig Matthew Sykes, the Army's director of corporate communications, said that he formally told the programme's editor last week that the Ministry of Defence did not wish this material to be shown.

Sapper Allsopp and S/Sgt Cullingworth, members of a bomb disposal unit of 33 (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Engineer Regiment, disappeared near Al Zubayr on March 23. Their bodies were shown on al-Jazeera but not in this country.

A BBC spokesman said it would be impossible to show the differences between Arab and Western media without some of the footage.

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This is DISGUSTING. how would they like to see the bodies of their loved ones lying in the dust, with militia baying over their bodies. These men gave their lives for their country. The wishes of the families should be the final word imho

[piasa]

fyi

[Tamzee]

Methinks liberals need more sensitivity training...

[may18]

Its disgusting

the families f those who died for their country should be the ONLY ones whos opinions count.

The PM has even asked them not to show it, and the public doesnt want them to

Yet they say its in the public interest

whih public is what id like to know

[SJSAMPLE]

"The families of two British soldiers killed in Iraq last night accused the BBC of cruelty for planning to show film of the men lying dead."

So, were the two soldiers killed "last night", or was the parents' accusation made "last night", or are journalists becoming hacks with the English language?

[facedown]

Typical for the Beeb.