[Media-watch] The danger to journalists

[John Meed]

There now seems little doubt that the attack by an American tank on the
Palestine Hotel in Baghdad that killed two journalists was a deliberate and
unprovoked attack on the journalists there. There are many witnesses to
counteract the US military¹s assertion that their vehicles had come under
fire from snipers in the Palestine Hotel. I would call on all who believe in
the freedom of the press to raise this issue with their MP and/or government
ministers.

Robert Fisk sums up the argument:

"The Americans responded with what all the evidence proves to be a
straightforward lie. General Buford Blount of the US 3rd Infantry Division ­
whose tanks were on the bridge ­ announced that his vehicles had come under
rocket and rifle fire from snipers in the Palestine Hotel, that his tank had
fired a single round at the hotel and that the gunfire had then ceased. The
general's statement, however, was untrue.

"I was driving on a road between the tanks and the hotel at the moment the
shell was fired ­ and heard no shooting. The French videotape of the attack
runs for more than four minutes and records absolute silence before the
tank's armament is fired. And there were no snipers in the building. Indeed,
the dozens of journalists and crews living there ­ myself included ­ have
watched like hawks to make sure that no armed men should ever use the hotel
as an assault point." (Robert Fisk: Is there some element in the US military
that wants to take out journalists?, The Independent, 09 April 2003)

The Guardian summarises how other journalists ­ including a Murdoch
correspondent ­ back up this argument:

"Journalists in the hotel, which is well known to the Americans as the main
media centre in Baghdad, insisted there had been no Iraqi fire.  Sky's
correspondent David Chater said he was on a balcony at the hotel immediately
before the shell exploded. "I never heard a single shot coming from any of
the area around here, certainly not from the hotel," he said. BBC
correspondent Rageh Omaar added that none of the other journalists in the
hotel had heard any sniper fire." (Three die in attacks on media bases, Rory
McCarthy, Jonathan Steele and Brian Whitaker, Wednesday April 9, 2003, The
Guardian)

One of the journalists from France 3 corroborates:

"None of the journalists in the hotel saw or heard any shooting from the
hotel before [the shell was fired]." Carolina Sinz of France 3, quoted in Le
Monde 10 April 2003

Angeles Espinosa in El Pais also comments that: "None of the journalists in
the Palestine saw or heard any shootingŠThe pressure that Washington has
brought to bear on European governments to encourage their journalists to
leave Baghdad only serves to confirm the suspicion that the shelling was not
an accident, but a warningŠJournalists have become annoying witnesses for
Washington." (Angeles Espinosa, Testigos Molestos, El Pais, April 9, 2003)

John Meed