Media Held Guilty
Of Deception
By Dahr Jamail
16 February, 2005
Inter Press Service
ROME, Feb 14 (IPS) - A peoples tribunal has held much of Western
media guilty of inciting violence and deceiving people in its reporting
of Iraq.
The World Tribunal
on Iraq (WTI), an international peoples initiative seeking the truth
about the war and occupation in Iraq made its pronouncement Sunday after
a three- day meeting. The tribunal heard testimony from independent
journalists, media professors, activists, and member of the European
Parliament Michele Santoro.
The Rome session
of the WTI followed others in Brussels, London, Mumbai, New York, Hiroshima-Tokyo,
Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon. The Rome meeting focused on the media
role.
The informal panel
of WTI judges accused the United States and the British governments
of impeding journalists in performing their task, and intentionally
producing lies and misinformation.
The panel accused
western corporate media of filtering and suppressing information, and
of marginalising and endangering independent journalists. More journalists
were killed in a 14-month period in Iraq than in the entire Vietnam
war.
The tribunal said
mainstream media reportage on Iraq also violated article six of the
Nuremberg Tribunal (set up to try Nazi crimes) which states: "Leaders,
organisers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation
or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing
crimes (crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity)
are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of
such a plan."
The panel that heard
testimonies included Francois Houtart, director of the Tricontinental
Centre in Belgium that has backed several peoples movements in Latin
America, and Dr. Samir Amin, director of the Third World Forum in Dakar,
Senegal. Dr. Haleh Afshar, who teaches politics and women's studies
at the University of York in Britain, and Italian author and newspaper
editor Ernesto Pallotta witnessed the proceedings.
"This is not
simply an exercise to denounce the mainstream media for their bias and
incompetence," said Dr. Tony Alessandrini, a human rights activist
who has published several articles on the U.S. colonisation of Iraq.
"These denunciations have been going on for months. Here in Rome,
we must go further.."
Alessandrini, who
helped organised the WTI added, "What we are being asked to consider
is not simply media bias, but rather the active complicity of media
in crimes that have been committed and are being committed on a daily
basis against the people in Iraq."
Several experts
gave strong testimony. Dr. Peter Philips, director of 'Project Censured'
at Sonoma State University in California where he teaches media censorship
provided taped testimony. He said that at no time since the 1930s has
the United States been so close to "institutionalised totalitarianism",
and added, "U.S. society has become the least informed, best entertained
society in the world."
The WTI Rome session
also heard testimony from Dr. David Miller from Scotland, author of
'Tell Me Lies: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on Iraq'.
"This is about condemning journalistic complicity of war crimes,"
said Dr. Miller, who is also co-editor of Spinwatch, a group that monitors
public relations and propaganda.
Miller said the
Pentagon "does not recognise the concept of independent journalists,
because they are providers of unfriendly information", and that
mainstream media in the United States and in Britain was "complicit
in furthering the selling of the invasion, and ongoing occupation. All
studies conducted on mainstream media show dominance by government policies,
and wartime coverage of TV news in the UK was generally sympathetic
to the government's case.."
Fernando Suarez,
who lost his son Jesus during the invasion of Iraq when he is said to
have stepped on an illegal U.S. cluster bomb, also testified at the
tribunal.
Suarez testified
that he was first told by the Pentagon that his son died from a gunshot
to the head, then that he died in an accident, and then that he had
died in 'friendly fire'.
On inspecting his
son's body Suarez said he discovered that his son had died from stepping
on a cluster bomb.
"I never had
the truth from them," Suarez added. "I found the truth, and
the truth was very simple. On March 26 the Army dropped 20,000 cluster
bombs in Iraq, but only about 20 percent exploded. The other 80 percent
are in the cities and the schools and acting like mines."
Suarez said: "Bush
sent my son because he said Iraq had illegal weapons, and my son died
from an illegal American weapon, and nobody has spoken about this. The
media will not talk about the illegal American weapons."
Several witnesses
testified about media disinformation over the siege of Fallujah. They
were presented copies of the award winning documentary 'Weapons of Mass
Deception' by journalist and film-maker Danny Schechter, who is also
executive editor of Mediachannel.org, an online media issues network.
Alessandrini said
evidence of active complicity of the mainstream media in wrongs committed
against the people of Iraq, and the wrongs of deception and incitement,
was now overwhelming.
"We work from
the understanding that history will recall the crimes committed against
the people of Iraq by the U.S.," he said. "It is our responsibility
to record these crimes in order to ensure these crimes are never again
repeated.