This document discusses several questions related to wartime journalism and the challenges journalists face in covering conflicts. It notes that over 1,000 journalists have been killed since 1992 while reporting on wars, with many murders going unpunished. Embedded journalism is questioned as it puts reporters under military oversight, though it also provides access. The lines between fact and propaganda can be blurred in conflicts, and the demands of the news cycle may impact public understanding. Overall, the document examines the complexities of reporting on wars and balancing truth-telling with safety.

1. 1

2. Questions to consider today
• Why do some journalists risk their lives to get stories?
• What can the mainstream media show us? Should there be limits?
Why/not?
• To what extent is it possible to separate fact from propaganda/spin?
• How complicit are journalists in this process during wartime?
• How might the demands for copy/footage/stories impact upon public
knowledge?
• Can embedded journalism be balanced? Or should journalists strive
to be free from military oversight?
• What motivates a journalist to become a war correspondent?
2

3. 3
Since 1992 the total
confirmed journalists
death stands at:
1051 (March 2014)
616 of those were
murdered with impunity
2013: 211 journalists
imprisoned
Between 2003-9 89
journalists in Iraq were
murdered. 50 more
were caught in
crossfire

4. Madrid 2004
4

5. Madrid 2004
• Guardian changes colour
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6. Madrid 2004
• The Times airbrushes
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7. Madrid 2004
• The Telegraph airbrushes
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8. 8

9. 9

10. What can the news actually
show us?
10

11. Sodomized with a knife?
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12. 12

13. 13

14. 14

15. What can the news actually
show us?
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16. 16

17. Ahmed Chalabi
• Interim oil minister in Iraq April-May 2005 and December-
January 2006
• Deputy prime minister from May 2005 until May 2006.
• Pre-2003 invasion, under his guidance the Iraqi National
Congress, supported by lobbyists BKSH & Associates, provided
substantial info on which U.S. Intelligence based its
condemnation of Saddam Hussein, including reports of
weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al-Qaeda
• 2007: acted as political intermediary between Iraqis and US
security forced during Bush’s “surge” offensive 17

18. Useful viewing material
Control Room
(2004, Jehane Noujaim)
WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception
(2004, Danny Schechter)
Panorama Special: In The Line of Fire
(9th
Nov 2003, BBC)
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19. 19

20. Original news report
• 6th
April 2003: audio only
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fg_pUgmP-w
• This is the video package that was broadcast
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z3AtgDRjHU
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21. In the Line of Fire
• BBC Panorama
• Broadcast November 2003 – 7 months after the incident;
5 months after Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech
• Edited version resold to UKTV History channel for pre-
watershed broadcast.
• Features a unilateral/non-embedded team of journalists
who have stolen over the Turkey/Iraq border to find news
not covered in military controlled circles.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulHpAjUPco0
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22. Useful viewing material
Control Room
(2004, Jehane Noujaim)
WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception
(2004, Danny Schechter)
Panorama Special: In The Line of Fire
(9th
Nov 2003, BBC)
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23. Control Room
• Footage from Al-Jazeera documentary that was
recorded in Central Command during the war.
• Al-jazeera journalists were frustrated with the way in
which double-standards seemed to be in operation
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWdDMAH6Kvw
• Does it appear like there are double-standards in place
here vis-à-vis objectivity, neutrality, truth, etc?
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24. How should journalists show the
reality of warfare?
Clip from C4 show “Iraq: The Hidden Story” (2008)
Which broadcaster got it right? 24

25. 25

26. Ofcom: Section 1
• Violence and dangerous behaviour
• 1.11 Violence, its after-effects and descriptions of violence, whether verbal
or physical, must be appropriately limited in programmes broadcast before
the watershed … and must also be justified by the context.
• 1.12 Violence, whether verbal or physical, that is easily imitable by children
in a manner that is harmful or dangerous:
– must not be featured in programmes made primarily for children unless there is strong
editorial justification;
– must not be broadcast before the … unless there is editorial justification.
• 1.13 Dangerous behaviour, or the portrayal of dangerous behaviour, that is
likely to be easily imitable by children in a manner that is harmful:
– must not be featured in programmes made primarily for children unless there is strong
editorial justification;
– must not be broadcast before the watershed (in the case of television) … unless there is
editorial justification.
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27. Ofcom: Section 2
• Harm and Offence
• 2.4 Programmes must not include material (whether in individual
programmes or in programmes taken together) which, taking into account
the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously
antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage others to copy such
behaviour.
• 2.5 Methods of suicide and self-harm must not be included in programmes
except where they are editorially justified and are also justified by the
context.
27

28. 2011: British troops in Afghanistan
28
Footage found in September 2012
following a police search of a laptop
(link)
Audio of incident (2:02)

29. Homs, Syria - 21 February 2012
29http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17120484

30. Homs, Syria - 22 February 2012
• Marie Colvin
• Remi Ochlik
30

31. Restrepo
(2010, S. Junger & T. Hetherington )
31

32. Restrepo
• The Korengal Valley
• Sebastian Junger and
Tim Hetherington
• Embedded with Second Platoon,
B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd
Infantry Regiment (airborne),
173rd Airborne Brigade Combat
Team of the U.S. Army
32
Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DjqR6OucBc

33. Embedded
• Audio: http://youtu.be/2-CH3IZys_4
• Tim Hetherington claims the film was not
censored and not political
• Is this feasible when embedded?
• Can any coverage of war be apolitical?
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34. How to cover conflicts?
• Restrepo has been accused of privileging a
soldier’s subjective experience of war.
• The filmmakers are embedded with the US
forces for a year and its rare for any other
perspective to appear.
• The filmmakers risked their lives to tell this story,
but was it worth it? Why make a film about
soldiers 8+ years into a conflict?
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35. ‘Grunt documentaries’
• ‘by privileging personal experience over
historical awareness, these accounts
construct a version of the war in which it
becomes impossible to apprehend such
atrocities as Haditha, Ramadi, Abu Ghraib’
– Tony Grajeda 2007
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36. Misrata, Libya - 20 April 2011
36http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHC-djUmxWs

37. Questions?
1. So we have ‘nowness’, we have immediate coverage,
we have words and images but what do we know about
war?
2. Should war reporting be for information or an extension
of the war effort?
3. As viewers we can watch the news non-stop – does this
mean that we understand the news as a construction
(as provisional, disputed, happening as journalists
speak)?
4. Does news become reduced to narrative with points of
closure – do we stop viewing when the statue is pulled
down? When do we start to watch again, or really listen,
or even think?
5. How long did our interest in Iraq last? Are we concerned
with it today? Should we be?
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38. Additional resources
• David Leigh, 2003, ‘False Witness’-
examples of military disinformation and
the media. Available at
– http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,92931
• Report of faked war report from Sky News.
Actual footage available at:
– http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3078693.stm
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39. The DA-Notice system
• http://www.dnotice.org.uk/
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40. Non-voluntary alternatives
• Criminal law
Official Secrets Act(s)
Terrorism Act 2000/2006
Prosecution follows publication
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41. • Tension between free speech and national
security/media and government
• DA-Notice system is voluntary and extra
legal
• Arrangement between government and
media not to publish certain information
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42. Free Speech
• Various theories justifying free speech –
‘free speech as an argument from
democracy’ most relevant here
• Not an absolute right – national security is
a legitimate reason for limiting free
speech?
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43. DA-Notices: Still Useful?
• No
the internet has increasingly changed the way the
public accesses news and information
increased information available in the ‘public domain’
(international news, war bloggers, www.arrse.co.uk)
• Yes
System still useful for old technology – hard copy print
media, radio & television (also have internet platforms
that need policing)
Represents an alterative conciliatory approach
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44. 44

45. Princely PR
• Caroline Gammell, March 1 2008, The Telegraph, ‘How the Prince Harry
blackout was broken’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1580111/How-the-Prince-Harry-
blackout-was-broken.html
• Non attributed, March 2, 2008, The Independent, ‘The people's prince: with
Harry in Afghanistan. Dog of war or PR pawn?’
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-peoples-prince-with-
harry-in-afghanistan-dog-of-war-or-pr-pawn-790323.html
• Peter McKay, March 2 2008, Mail, ‘Prince Harry in Afghanistan: Oh! What a
lovely PR stunt’ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/columnists/article-
524341/Prince-Harry-Afghanistan-Oh-What-lovely-PR-stunt.html
• Peter Wilby, March 3 2008, The Guardian, ‘'Harry's war' - it's just a blatant
PR stunt’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/03/royalsandthemedia.pressand
publishing
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