[Media-watch] FW: Letter to the Guardian

Jane Herbstritt jane.herbstritt at civicforum.org.uk
Wed Mar 26 14:53:36 GMT 2003


 
 
Sent this to the Guardian.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jane Herbstritt 
Sent: 26 March 2003 14:31
To: 'letters at guardian.co.uk'
Subject: Letter - War propaganda


Dear Editor,
 
I don't know to what extent journalists and newspaper and television
editors understand the power of their words and pictures.  As a British
citizen who has never been to the Middle East, and who has never
experienced war first hand, I cannot even begin to imagine what is going
on in Iraq.  I must piece together a picture in my head through the
information and pictures I am fed from tv, newspapers, the internet.  I
can be sceptical about some of the information I receive, but in the end
I have to trust the journalists to search out the truth.  But I do not
believe I am being shown the truth by the British media.
 
Over the last couple of days, I have seen the pictures broadcast by
al-Jazeera on the internet.  I have seen the horrible pictures of war:
men, women and children - Iraqi civilians - killed by British and
American troops.  Watching the news this morning I only saw pictures of
Iraqis queuing for water and Iraqis celebrating when they believed a
allied soldier had been forced to eject from his plane after it crashed.
On the Guardian's front page cover there is only a picture of a British
soldier in a sandstorm.  I did not see the true pictures of the
suffering in Iraq that I know is going on as I write
 
The British media talks of military strategy and bombing raids and shows
the spectacular 'shock and awe' of allied bombing of Baghdad.  This is
not a game we can play on our PlayStation 2s!  We are losing the human
factor.  If you are truly as objective as you claim to be, then you need
to show the suffering that this war is causing, and not just the
suffering of British and American troops.  You must make people realise
the true horror and suffering of war, or else print nothing!
 
Although to a certain extent we are all aware that there will be war
propaganda during this time, nevertheless the story the media chooses to
tell is the one that has legitimacy, the one people believe.  On
Saturday, I took part in an anti-war march in Glasgow along with
thousands of others.  The demonstration started at mid-day and continued
into the evening, despite police harrassment.  The next day and Monday I
wanted to find out what went on in London and in other parts of the
country.  I had to scour the papers for even a little bit of news.
There are pages and pages on the Iraqi war, and yet British newspapers
can barely give a few paragraphs to the hard-work, energy and creativity
that has gone into the anti-war movement.  Give us legitimacy!  Tell our
story too.  We are a story of hope, at a time when there is too much
despair, suffering and death.
 
Yours Sincerely,
Jane Herbstritt
jherbstritt at hotmail.com <mailto:jherbstritt at hotmail.com> 
 
(please use the above email address, not my work one,  Thanks)

Jane Herbstritt
Administrative Officer 
SCOTTISH CIVIC FORUM
21 Queen Street
Edinburgh EH2 1JX
0131 2256789








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