[Media-watch] Reporting British deaths

[John Meed]

Dear Mediawatch

The recent deaths of six British soldiers provide yet another interesting
study of how the media operate.

Initial news reports quoted official sources saying that the soldiers were
shot when they attended a pre-arranged meeting with local residents. The
claim by Lieutenant-Colonel Ronnie McCourt, an Army spokesman in Basra, that
the killing of the RMPs "was unprovoked, it was murder" was flashed across
the headlines of the London Evening Standard and news booths around the
capital on June 25. That evening, BBC News also featured a commentator
arguing that hard-line Baathist elements were probably responsible.

By the next day, a totally different story was emerging. It became clear
that the British army had angered local residents who demonstrated against
them:

'The crucial moment came when one British soldier went into a firing
position, pointing his weapon at a child. (A witness) said: "A local man
called Taissir Abdul Wahad thought the soldier was going to shoot and
pointed his own gun"... The soldiers then shot Taissir and another man dead.
At this point, they were 300 to 400 yards from the village police station.
Two soldiers were killed near the local agricultural college and the other
four retreated to the police station... An Iraqi policeman in the town, said
angry townspeople fetched weapons and converged on the police station after
the stone-throwing. One soldier was shot and killed in the building's
doorway; three more were slain after gunmen stormed the police station and
cornered them.' (The Independent June 26)

Le Monde (June 26) ran a similar report, with the quote from a witness that
'Saddam Hussein never managed to take our arms - it's not the British
infidels who are going to now.' And the Guardian of June 27 backed up the
probability that the soldiers were killed 'apparently by local people
angered by aggressive weapons searches'.

So what do we learn from all this? Firstly, the affectionate picture that
the media likes to paint of the friendly British army with their talent for
buiding good relationships with local people hides a rather different story
of house-to-house searches with 'brutal and disrespectful methods', to quote
a local teacher cited in Le Monde.

Secondly, the media once more respectfully repeat the official line - an
unprovoked attack by Saddam loyalists - before the truth - that the incident
was provoked when British soldiers fired on civilian demonstrators -
emerged. 

Almost two months after Bush declared the war over, the killing continues -
and so does the propoganda.

John Meed