Coastal
Post Online
June, 2003
A Lethal Way To
"Dispatch" The News
By Norman Solomon
In times of war, journalists can
serve as vital witnesses for the people of the world. So it's especially
sinister when governments take aim at reporters and photographers.
A few weeks ago, when I was talking
with a CNN cameraman, he recalled an overseas stint to cover events in the West
Bank. Anger was evident in his voice: "The Israelis were shooting at
us."
When military forces are assaulting
civilians, commanders often try to prevent media from telling true stories with
pictures and words. Governments that maim and kill civilians are routinely
eager to stop journalists from getting too close to the action. Those who
persist are vulnerable to retribution.
For a long time now, the US
government has been hostile toward the Al-Jazeera television network. Widely
watched in the Arab world, Al-Jazeera's coverage of the war on Iraq has been in
sharp contrast to the coverage on American television. As Time magazine
observed: "On US TV it means press conferences with soldiers who have hand
and foot injuries and interviews with POWs' families, but little blood. On Arab
and Muslim TV it means dead bodies and mourning."
Back in 2001, with the United
States at war in Afghanistan, the Pentagon bombed Al-Jazeera's bureau in Kabul.
This year, during the lead-up to the war in Iraq, Al-Jazeera repeatedly
informed the US military of the exact coordinates of the network's office in
downtown Baghdad.
On April 8, a US missile hit that
Al-Jazeera office, taking the life of Tareq Ayub, a 34-year-old Jordanian
journalist. A coincidence? A mere accident? I don't think so.
The same day, a US tank fired a
shell at the Palestine Hotel, where most foreign journalists have been based
lately in Baghdad. The assault killed Taras Protsyuk of the Reuters news agency
and Jose Couso of the Spanish network Telecinco.
Explanations from the Pentagon have
not been credible. "US. Central Command first said troops came under fire
from the (hotel) lobby, while the field commander said whatever fire had been
headed toward his troops was wiped out with a single tank round into the upper
floors of the hotel," the AFX news agency reported. "But after a
journalist questioned why the tank shot the upper floors when fire had come
from the lobby, Central Command issued a revised statement saying there had
been 'significant enemy fire.'"
However, the journalists who were
eyewitnesses flatly contradicted that claim, saying no weapons fire had
emanated from the hotel. "There was no shooting at all," said French
TV cameraman Herve De Ploeg. "Then I saw the turret turning in our
direction and the carriage lifting. It faced the target." He insisted:
"It was not a case of instinctive firing."
The US government's response has
been to scold journalists for trying to do their jobs. "We continue to
warn news organizations about the dangers," said the Pentagon's Victoria
Clarke, who added: "We've had conversations over the last couple of days,
news organizations eager to get their people unilaterally into Baghdad. We are
saying it is not a safe place, you should not be there."
The key word in Clarke's statement
was "unilaterally" -- as opposed to "embedded" with US
troops. Decoding the Pentagon's message to journalists isn't too difficult: If
you don't play by our rules, you're much more likely to find yourself on a
stretcher -- or dead.
I certainly wouldn't argue with the
father of the journalist killed by the US missile that hit the Al-Jazeera
office in Baghdad. "My son is a martyr who was killed as a result of America's
so-called civilization in an attack on press freedom," said Naeem Ayub. He
added: "They are attacking journalists to hide the truth."
Civil libertarians in the United
States worry aloud that government pressures and corporate dominance can have a
"chilling effect" on freedom of the press. We should not forget that
it can also be chilling for journalists to see their colleagues killed as part
of a governmental pattern.
The day after Tareq Ayub died,
Al-Jazeera moved to evacuate its employees. "I believe that none of them
is safe anymore, whether in Baghdad or the rest of Iraq," said
editor-in-chief Ibrahim Hilal, "even those who are with American
troops."
No doubt the media spinners in
Washington look forward to the departure of Al-Jazeera's journalists from
liberated Iraq.
_________________________
Norman Solomon is co-author of the new book "Target Iraq: What the News
Media Didn't Tell You." For an excerpt and other information, go to:
www.contextbooks.com/new.html#target