Iraq information war hinders impartiality, says Reuters 16.04.2004

As fighting intensifies in Iraq, journalists’ ability to impartially report on events and avoid getting embroiled in the US military’s public information campaign is increasingly hindered, says a Thursday report from Reuters. The news agency detailed the parallel battle journalists are fighting in Iraq, as US authorities tighten the reigns on the flow of information and violence keeps reporters from moving about freely. “Gaps between statements read from the briefing room podium and information coming from the ground has widened in recent weeks,” Reuters reported. “I think it’s important to understand that they [US authorities] view public information as an area of battle,” the news agency quoted Carl Conetta of the Project for Defense Alternatives as saying. “They call it a battle space. They understand that both within Iraq and outside the direction of public opinion, the weight of public opinion, is very important in terms of what freedom they have to act.” The report uses the example of the US-led forces’ crackdown on insurgents in Falluja, following the murder and mutilation of four US civilian contractors there earlier this month, as an example of the information war. News agencies have reported that some 600 Iraqis have died in the fighting in Falluja since early April. When questioned about those casualties, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, the US Army’s chief spokesperson in Iraq, said the Falluja operation was “tremendously precise, tremendously circumspect, and well within the rules of engagement”. While that statement was largely predictable, what came afterwards was not. Television footage, including from Reuters, has best illustrated the tragedy in Falluja, broadcasting scenes of hundreds of wounded lying in makeshift hospitals and the bodies of dead children and elderly men and women scattered about. To that, Kimmitt suggested that viewers simply change the channel. He suggested that media outlets reporting that US forces were responsible for large numbers of civilian casualties should simply be ignored. “On the images of American and coalition forces killing innocent civilians, my advice to you is change the channel…The stations that are showing Americans killing women and children are not legitimate channels,” he said. Aside from Iraqi civilian casualties, the Reuters report said that authorities also appear to be trying to quell the dissemination of information about wounded US soldiers. But the US Army insists it has done nothing to halt the free flow of information. “We have never actively held back information, the only thing I hold back actively hold back are those things that are classified. I think we run an extremely transparent operation here,” Reuters quoted Kimmitt as saying. (ISN)