Ok, apologies for the dreadful headline.

Reporting both sides in a conflict does seem to invite political criticism, as CNN has discovered. Here’s the BBC attracting flak from the Conservative Party’s defence spokesman, Liam Fox.

He said: “I am disgusted that the BBC should broadcast an interview with a Taliban ‘adviser’ while our troops are being murdered by them.

“We have become used to a non-stop anti-war agenda from the BBC but broadcasting propaganda on behalf of this country’s enemies – at a time when our armed forces are being killed and maimed – marks a new low. The whole thing is obscene.”

Puts you off risking your life to tell both sides of the story.

Fox’s comment appeared first in the Daily Mail, a right-of-centre British paper – a sign perhaps of the ingenuity of Paul Revoir, who recently left trade paper Broadcast to become the Mail‘s TV correspondent. The Taliban report Fox refers to aired briefly on the Ten, but was produced for Newsnight.

Neither the Mail nor Fox had any words of criticism for ITV News, who aired clips from Taliban representatives in a Bill Neely report on 19 October 2006.

So should we exclude our military opponents from the airwaves? The BBC’s critics might like to consider the argument that hearing from the Taliban simply reminds people of the importance of continued military action. Unless of course they think that showing the Taliban’s determination will undermine a pusillanimous public?

Newsnight ed Peter Barron runs through his defence at the BBC editor’s blog. But to pick up on his points – do broadcasters know what puts soldiers’ lives at risk? And was the reporter offering himself and his crew as potential kidnap victims? There are few easy calls for journalists and their bosses.