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MEDIA BEATS THE WAR DRUMS
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As the war on Iraq makes two things clear. One is the need to acquaint ourselves with new distortions of language as the Bush Administration's strategy for managing the news is put into gear. Bush announced the involvement of 'coalition forces' in the action. What he really means is a dominant US military presence, a much smaller UK involvement, and now an Australian contingent. Not much of a coalition, really.Large numbers of reporters from the world's media are now 'embedded' in Kuwait - 150 with British forces and 660 with the US forces, and a grand total of over 5,000 of the world's media are deployed around the Gulf region. The Pentagon also now has a new million-dollar state-of-the-art media centre in Qatar.
The key questions are what freedom will the 'embedded' reporters have, and what kind of reporting from elsewhere in the Middle East will find its way into the mainstream media?
Gavin Hewitt, a BBC special correspondent, says the Pentagon's intention is to allow reporters access to military operations, but as the CBS news presenter, Dan Rather, said, 'There's a pretty fine line between being embedded and being entombed.'
In reality, as in the 1991 Gulf War, journalists who agree to go with combat units hand over their independence to the military. As a former CNN anchor, Bernard Shaw, points out, 'Journalists who agree to go with combat units effectively become hostages of the military, which can control the movements of the journalists and, more importantly, when they file their stories.'
Of course, there will be independent journalists, but Kate Adie says she has been told that journalists operating on their own - 'unilaterals' - will be targeted by the military if they are in areas where their presence is unauthorised.
The other issue is how the media will distort or censor the news as they become cheerleaders for the conflict. In the USA, even before the war started, there was an absence of critical analysis and dissenting voices on the news programmes. FAIR in a study of news coverage over a two-week period found that 76% of the guests on programmes were associated with either the US or with governments that support the Bush administration's position on Iraq. Only 2% were sceptics or opponents of war.
In the UK we see most clearly in some the national tabloid newspapers the jingoism and gung-ho war reporting which reduces the horror of war to a comic book treatment.
The BBC has some excellent editorial guidelines on reporting different views on the war, but sometimes the notion of impartiality can lead to exclusion of dissent. BBC executive, Richard Sambrook, in a leaked memo suggested phone-ins and emails 'are attracting some of the more extreme anti-war views' and makes the strange assertion that 'mid-ground majority views …may be unmotivated or intimidated from calling'. He argued that 'we need to be careful both to get a realistic balance and to ensure a diversity of views'. The effect of such an approach would be to exclude the substantial body of anti-war views represented by the Stop The War Coalition, for example.
There will all be abundance of selective, partial reporting, censorship and disinformation in media reporting of this conflict. Pressures on journalists will come from the military, politicians and proprietors (Rupert Murdoch's newspapers are all signed up to support the war, for example) to fall in line.
All the more important therefore to check out alternative sources. Follow the links below.LINKSwww.mwaw.org
www.fair.org
www.MediaWar.info/censorednews.htm
Last modified: Wednesday, May 7, 2003
Previous war reporting stories
Dropping Songs on the White House
US attack on journalists 'deliberate and unprovoked' - witness reports from Media-watch.
US Media Unions Demand Explanation for Deaths in Iraq
JOURNALISTS PAY THE PRICE OF WAR
"Reporting Iraq: the Challenge for Public Service Broadcasting" - Speech by Andrew Murray, chair of the Stop the War Coalition, March 27, 2003.
IFJ says attacks on journalists in Iraq are "Crimes of War" that must be punished
Amnesty International questions attacks on Palestine Hotel and Al-Jazeera
ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS ARE "WAR CRIMES" SAYS NUJ
MTV Europe heads tells station not to broadcast videos of war
Kucinich Takes to The House Floor To Call For An End to The War
Radio Vatican spreads pope's anti-war message around the world
US Drops 'E-Bomb' On Iraqi TV
We Work for Peace and Justice
WHILE OTHERS STOOD SILENT...
War Update from www.rense.com
24/7 Journalism Exposed
Bitter Rice - an Israeli looks at the war
Leaked BBC memo explains negative attitude to coverage of dissent.
PENTAGON THREATENS TO KILL INDEPENDENT REPORTERS IN IRAQ
Reporting War on Iraq: The Challenge for Public Service Broadcasting
MEDIA ACTIVISM (continued)
WAR SPIN
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (II)
Times, NPR Change Their Take on DC Protests
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (I)
BUSH'S "BLUEPRINT FOR US GLOBAL DOMINATION"
SELLING THE WAR
WAGING WAR ON IRAQ TO WIN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
WAR TALK
Not in My Name: A Cutting-Edge Film-Documentary
The Axis of Spin
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
War Reporting
Dropping Songs on the White House
US attack on journalists 'deliberate and unprovoked' - witness reports from Media-watch.
US Media Unions Demand Explanation for Deaths in Iraq
JOURNALISTS PAY THE PRICE OF WAR
"Reporting Iraq: the Challenge for Public Service Broadcasting" - Speech by Andrew Murray, chair of the Stop the War Coalition, March 27, 2003.
IFJ says attacks on journalists in Iraq are "Crimes of War" that must be punished
Amnesty International questions attacks on Palestine Hotel and Al-Jazeera
ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS ARE "WAR CRIMES" SAYS NUJ
MTV Europe heads tells station not to broadcast videos of war
Kucinich Takes to The House Floor To Call For An End to The War
Radio Vatican spreads pope's anti-war message around the world
US Drops 'E-Bomb' On Iraqi TV
We Work for Peace and Justice
WHILE OTHERS STOOD SILENT...
War Update from www.rense.com
24/7 Journalism Exposed
Bitter Rice - an Israeli looks at the war
Leaked BBC memo explains negative attitude to coverage of dissent.
PENTAGON THREATENS TO KILL INDEPENDENT REPORTERS IN IRAQ
Reporting War on Iraq: The Challenge for Public Service Broadcasting
MEDIA ACTIVISM (continued)
WAR SPIN
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (II)
Times, NPR Change Their Take on DC Protests
ACTIVISM PAYS OFF (I)
BUSH'S "BLUEPRINT FOR US GLOBAL DOMINATION"
SELLING THE WAR
WAGING WAR ON IRAQ TO WIN THE NOVEMBER ELECTIONS
WAR TALK
Not in My Name: A Cutting-Edge Film-Documentary
The Axis of Spin
