Global Policy Forum

By Julia Day

The BBC is refusing to cut footage of the dead bodies of two British soldiers from a controversial documentary about the Iraq war despite an extraordinary intervention from Tony Blair. The prime minister stepped into the row after the BBC defied calls from the Ministry of Defence and the families of the two men - staff sergeant Simon Cullingworth and sapper Luke Allsopp - to remove the pictures.

Mr Blair is understood to have written personally to Allsopp's widow, Alison Cullingworth, offering his support for a ban on footage of the two men in a BBC2 Correspondent film about the Arab TV station al-Jazeera. "We have said to any television station showing pictures of soldiers injured or killed that the media should respect the feelings of families, especially at what must be a very difficult time for them," said a Downing Street spokeswoman.

"We fully endorse what the Ministry of Defence has said and support its decision to ask the BBC to reconsider and not broadcast this footage." Allsopp's sister, Nina, told the Sun: "We don't want the bodies shown for even a milli-second."

But the BBC has refused to alter the film, which will be screened as planned on Sunday. It was postponed for a month because the original screening date coincided with the soldiers' funerals. The corporation said today the programme was in the public interest, the BBC had kept the soldiers' families informed and the faces of the soldiers were pixilated to disguise them. "We remain deeply sympathetic to the feelings of anyone who has lost family or friends in Iraq. However, we believe the subject covered in Correspondent is in the public interest," said the statement.

"From the very beginning, the BBC kept the MoD informed of the content of the programme and, at the request of the MoD, they informed the families of the BBC's plans. Correspondent is an award-winning series and is renowned for covering subjects sensitively and in great depth. It has covered the war in Iraq from various angles and this programme is one more piece in the jigsaw of this complicated subject. The programme deals with the differences in coverage of the war between the Arab world and the west, and the treatment of POWs and casualties on both sides is central and pertinent to the argument. Therefore, in the context of the programme, we believe the short clip being shown - with footage of the soldiers heavily disguised - is in the public interest." A spokesman for the BBC added: "The eight-second clip is the minimum necessary to make the point. We are not going beyond what is absolutely necessary."

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