An archbishop has accused the BBC of ignoring persecuted minorities [1] such as Christians and Yazidis in its acclaimed documentary ‘Once Upon a Time in Iraq’.
Iraqis oppressed because of their faith had been “airbrushed” out of the BBC’s history series, Bashar Warda, the Chaldean archbishop of Arbil, claimed.
He said Christians and others felt wounded and pained to be deprived of their voice and that the corporation had failed in its duty of impartiality.
The documentary looks at the legacy of the war against Saddam Hussein and the rise of Islamic State.
Iraq’s Christian community has dwindled by 90 per cent in a generation to an official 250,000 although experts believe it could be half that number.
Archbishop Warda, asked the BBC: “Does the persecution, murder and rape within our minority communities not count? Are our experiences of the 2003 invasion . . . irrelevant? Minority communities have felt and continue to feel voiceless in our persecution and suffering in Iraq; to be then airbrushed out of a . . . major BBC documentary is wounding and damaging.”
He asked for omissions to be “rectified so far as it is possible”.