On August 16, the BBC TV show Panorama broadcast a 30-minute documentary titled "Death in the Med." Here's the program description: "As controversy over Israel's blockade of Gaza still rages, Jane Corbin asks what really happened on the Mavi Marmara, when Israeli commandos seized the ship and nine people died. Panorama has exclusive new video and interviews with Israeli soldiers and activists involved."
According to some UK bloggers and media critics who support Israel, the documentary is well-balanced and presents Israel's side fairly:
Just Journalism Executive Director Michael Weiss issued a statement on the doc: "I can scarcely think of a better piece of journalism on the flotilla raid than Jane Corbin’s in-depth investigation, which drew from eyewitness testimony from both passengers and commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara. Notable in this report was an unwillingness to gloss over crucial video footage showing the upper deck of the ship laying siege to abseiling Israeli forces, or to take the word of IHH officials at face value. The only thing missing, really, was IHH’s well-publicised role as both a fundraiser and ideological helpmeet of Hamas."
On his blog Oy Va Goy, Chas Newkey-Burden analyses the predictably negative coverage of the doc in the left-leaning Guardian, noting: "I have a few small issues with the Panorama show, but in the main I found it admirably fair."
Similarly, a Harry's Place blog post titled "Islamists, Communists, Nutters Are Incensed with Panorama" looks at how anti-Israel groups immediately called the doc biased – some even before it aired.
Below is the documentary, in two parts:
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