An episode of Panorama which acquired backlash from viewers and the armed forces has been fiercely defended by the BBC in a prolonged assertion.
SAS Dying Squads Uncovered: A British Warfare Crime?, which is accessible on iPlayer, investigated the killings of a whole lot of individuals on night time raids in Afghanistan by particular forces.
The hour-long programme claimed it discovered proof of ‘54 suspicious deaths’ throughout a six-month tour of a single SAS unit.
Documentary makers, who investigated for 4 years, additionally allege the killings ‘had been raised to their headquarters as offering trigger for concern by senior UK particular forces officers on the time’ however weren’t correctly investigated.
Nevertheless, the present has precipitated upset amongst members of armed forces, in addition to BBC viewers.
The Ministry of Protection (MOD) mentioned troopers have been put ‘in danger each within the area and in popularity’ by the programme.
‘[The episode] jumps to unjustified conclusions from allegations which have already been totally investigated,’ the assertion learn.
‘[The MOD] offered an in depth and complete assertion to Panorama, highlighting unequivocally how two Service Police operations carried out an intensive and unbiased investigation into allegations concerning the conduct of UK forces in Afghanistan.’
The MOD revealed investigations into the matter had not ‘discovered ample proof to prosecute.’
In the meantime, a number of documentary lovers filed complaints to the Beeb, explaining they discovered the Panorama to be biased in opposition to the military.
However the BBC just isn’t going again on its claims, as a substitute issuing a response in protection of the programme.
It mentioned: ‘Alongside the testimony of dozens of navy insiders, a lot of the proof featured within the programme got here from navy stories, inner paperwork and emails from inside UK Particular Forces.
‘The SAS’s personal official account of this tour doesn’t dispute that detainees and unarmed folks had been repeatedly shot useless.’
Including there was a ‘sturdy public curiosity’ in publishing the knowledge, the BBC’s assertion claimed the proof ‘hadn’t been correctly investigated by the MOD.’
Based on the broadcaster: ‘The Royal Navy Police (RMP) didn’t discover out concerning the materials locked away within the secret file till 2015 – 4 years after the occasions occurred.
‘Insiders from the Royal Navy Police instructed Panorama they had been subsequently stopped from finishing up thorough and totally unbiased investigations.
‘Senior RMP investigators instructed Panorama they had been repeatedly prevented from following basic traces of enquiry, and that the circumstances had been dropped prematurely.’
BBC added it ‘didn’t search to impugn or criticise British troops normally.’
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