- ROME (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."
-
- More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com
-
- (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.
- All images and text are protected by United States and
international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches
on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link
to the DahrJamailIraq.com website. Any other use of images and text including,
but not limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing
requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward
Dahr's dispatches via email.
-
- Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
- http://dahrjamailiraq.com
|
