[Media-watch] BBC news head defends policy of censorship

[Darren Smith]

BBC head of news  defends policy of not showing child casualties and
other horrific images. Please complain to the BBC. War is awful, and the
BBC should not attempt to hide it. 

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TV stations criticise the use of 'images of war'

By Ian Burrell
24 March 2003

News organisations faced criticism last night over use and censorship of
disturbing images of war.

Sharp differences have emerged in the editorial values of the Western
and Arab media. In a discussion on BBC Radio 5 Live, Richard Sambrook,
the director of BBC News, defended the corporation's decision not to
show horrific images of Iraqi child casualties that were widely screened
on Arab television stations.

When accused of bias, Mr Sambrook said that pictures of a 10-year-old
boy who had suffered appalling head injuries in bombing were not
suitable for a British audience.

Steve Anderson, controller of ITV News, said: "I have seen some of the
images on Al-Jazeera television. I would never put them on screen. I'm
not criticising them for that. There seems to be an acceptance of images
I don't think would be acceptable here."

Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera broadcast pictures of what it said were killed and
captured US soldiers, which the International Committee of the Red Cross
said was in breach of the Geneva Convention. 

-- 
djs1 at stir.ac.uk

 DON'T ATTACK IRAQ!!! www.edinburghstw.org.uk