Critics Fail to Stop "War Zone Game Show"

[Eye and Monkey]

http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/reliefresources/108627201136.htm

LONDON (AlertNet) - The BBC is going ahead with plans for a controversial reality TV series giving former soldiers challenges in humanitarian hotspots, despite criticism by major aid agencies who say it blurs the lines between the military and relief work.

Only one NGO has agreed to help with the programme -- which goes by the working title "Forces for Good" -- saying it will do anything to help the poor and raise the profile of populations in need. “I think they approached everyone. Mixing the military and the humanitarian was a step too close to our values,” Action Aid press officer Jane Moyo told AlertNet.

DANGER TO AID WORKERS

Aid agencies argue that when the lines are blurred it puts their staff at risk in places where military who look like them are under attack. This was thrown into sharp relief when a Taliban spokesman said five staff of Médecins sans Frontières had been killed in Afghanistan in early June because they were part of the U.S.-led military operation there.

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