Was truth the first casualty in Gaza?

The consequences of the Israeli invasion of Gaza are now clear to see. My colleague, Channel 4 News reporter Jonathan Miller, managed to drive the 24-mile length of the Gaza Strip yesterday, and his report makes necessary viewing for anyone who wishes to take a view on the Middle East conflict. For, in fact, Muslim and western worlds have seen two very different accounts of the invasion.

Ten days ago I travelled to the Israel-Gaza border to try to find out what was happening. My documentary, Unseen Gaza, airs tonight on Channel 4. Indeed, I write this on the way to the editing studios, where we have been assembling our findings. They are not pretty, and no-one emerges with much credit.

Although they provided journalists with a full-blown media centre in Sderot, the Israeli government allowed no foreign media into Gaza during the conflict. They told us this was to safeguard our own lives – despite the fact that we told them repeatedly that WE would make the judgement on what risks we would take to report their activity. It’s also true that until the last week of the conflict, no foreign journalists were allowed in from the Egyptian border with Gaza.

In Gaza itself, there were teams of Gazan journalists, including some who worked directly for Channel 4 News, and a handful of others, mainly from Egypt and other neighbouring Arab states. They too were unable to get about to see much, but pictures did make their way out, shown unexpurgated on Arab news channels. We in the west showed the material too, but our judgements on what to show of badly injured and mutilated victims forbade our showing much. So our two worlds saw two very different conflicts.

Did this skew the world’s response? Was the first casualty “truth”? Was the outcome of it all affected by our lack of emotional connection to what was going on? See what you think tonight, Channel 4, 11.05pm. Taste and decency rules forbid its earlier transmission.