'Jules Crittenden ... told how he became actively engaged in the fighting in support of the armed group with whom he was travelling. He ...helped to kill three Iraqi soldiers.' 'Why did the US Information Services and senior officers repeatedly issue statements in the aftermath of the event that were clearly untrue regarding hostile fire from the Palestine Hotel?' 'BBC reporter Jonathan Marcus complained that the media service was very stage-managed. There was the over-arching American press operation which was very much a public relations exercise if you like, he said.' http://www.ifj.org/ Hot off the press Justice Denied On The Road To Baghdad IFJ (International Federation of Journalists) 48 page A4 report Safety of Journalists and Killing of Media Staff During the Iraq War 1. You can download and print it out as an Acrobat document from the IFJ site PDF FORMAT http://www.ifj.org/pdfs/iraqreport2003.pdf 2. Or get copies free from the branch office here in Bristol - email bristol@nuj.org.uk or call 0117 944 6219 By the beginning of 2003 a new war in the Persian Gulf, this time dedicated to the overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, was inevitable.The only question was when the shooting would start.... The US and the UK invested millions of dollars in an expensive media show. At Central Command in the Qatar desert,a media centre, soon to be discredited, was set up to provide a running news service for correspondents. Another 600 reporters were 'embedded' with military units.Travelling with the invading forces,they were the shock troops of a real-time war, providing instant news from the frontline to feed a media machine hungry for information. Alongside and around them, but not under military control, were up to 2,000 independent or 'unilateral' journalists spread out over the territory of Iraq, looking for stories not filtered by military spin doctors, that might provide insight into the reality of the war. It was, by any stretch, the most extensive and expensive media campaign in recent history.It was also the most dangerous.By the end of the war, 1 May, 16 journalists and media staff had been killed or had died covering the war. Three months later the number reached 20. The unexplained killings of seven journalists by coalition forces in four separate incidents in Basra and Baghdad provoked unprecedented outrage among journalists around the world.The IFJ was among the most outspoken critics of a military and political culture that has led to astonishing complacency and neglect over the safety of journalists. The impulse to monitor, control, and manipulate the information process had led to a casual disregard of journalists' rights to work safely and to report independently. This report provides a brief overview of events.It examines the unexplained deaths and poses questions that must be answered, it discusses the need for long-overdue changes in international law. to give new levels of protection for media staff, it reports on the experiences of some journalists – “embedded ” and “unilateral ” – and, finally, it rallies support for the the cause of the International News Safety Institute, a new global campaign to improve journalists’ safety. The Iraq war, like so many before it, provides confirmation that the safety of journalists and media staff must be paramount.It's a simple truth, but one still not understood by governments and many negligent media organisations. Aidan White IFJ General Secretary - International Federation of Journalists Bristol branch - National Union of Journalists 10-12 Picton Street Montpelier BRISTOL BS6 5QA England http://media.guardian.co.uk/ http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/ http://lists.southspace.net/listinfo/nuj_bristol/ http://lists.southspace.net/pipermail/nuj_bristol/ http://www.takebackthemedia.com/bushnonazi.html http://www.gegrapha.org/uk/default.htm http://www.gn.apc.org/media/nuj.html http://www.nuj.org.uk http://www.cpj.org http://www.ifj.org +44 (0)117 944 6219