Media - conflict reporting

Political Context:

The conflict in Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, viewed widely as the first "information age" conflict, has had a major impact on the international media, thrusting it into an increasingly complex but influential position.

Independence and objective coverage for many decades have been the watchwords of widely respected media organisations. Has this now been jeopardised? Is the media responsible, at least in part, for disseminating damaging regional and religious stereotypes, increasing public anxiety, undermining strategic-level military and political planning, and raising expectations for a "clean war" - short with limited casualties and no errors? In short, journalists are paid to cover wars, not to win them.

The power of the media, and its ability to convey real-time information, is in no doubt. "The mass media have the ability to restrain collective hysteria in times of crisis… The word has more power than the most precise modern weapon," Russian Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoy told the conference.

In a message to the conference, Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal said: "The recent tightly-framed footage of Saddam's statue being toppled in Baghdad has been shown again and again as the image of liberated Iraqis responding en masse by destroying a symbol of tyranny."

"Other wider-framed photographs purport to show that the whole event involved no more than perhaps a couple of hundred people in the square under military supervision. The original footage has thus been dismissed by many critics of the US as propaganda for a successful war outcome," he added.
Although it is difficult to draw a clear picture of events surrounding the conflict in Iraq, it is clear that both print and broadcast news organisations often run the risk of their coverage being politicised, especially with the new phenomenon of journalists being "embedded" with frontline military units.

Also, initial analysis of data and figures from this conflict also indicate that the war in Iraq could mark a turning point in military history. Since the end of World War one in 1918, the trend has been that civilian casualties outnumber those of the military.

"In percentage terms, news gathering casualties outnumber all other demographics except the Iraqi military. If reported figures are credible, the media can be seen as the new 'collateral damage' of information age warfare," Anton Kuruc, director of Australian-based Global Risk Awareness, reported to the conference. Fourteen international journalists were reported killed in the war.

"(Embedded) journalists are getting an unprecedented view of a battlefield and conveying it straight to end-users in real time. This has not led to more understanding. It undermines what is happening at the strategic level. If we focus too much on the individual battle, we can lose the big picture," Jean Fournet, NATO's Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy, said.

This breadth of information, however, does not necessarily lead to understanding with constant streams of reports. "… Information is not perspective. And the reports at the tactical level threaten, almost paradoxically, to undermine our understanding of what is happening at the strategic level," Mr. Fournet, the session's keynote speaker, said.

There are inherent dangers in the way the general public receives news. "Present technologies bring war to you all the time. The way we witness it sometimes turns it into virtual reality. It looks like a computer game. This is a very dangerous trend. It is watched by our children who look at it as an entertaining game," said Irina Zvyagelskaya, a panelist and Vice-President of the International Centre for Strategic and Political Studies in Russia.

Drawing on recent experiences, Mr. Fournet called for opinion formers to be honest about the information they give out, for journalists and politicians and other public servants to educate people, and for responsible media to place as much emphasis on peace building as to the war itself.

The war in Iraq was a recurring theme at the conference. At a session on Media Technology and Logistics in the Iraqi Conflict, Akram Khouzam, Moscow Bureau Chief of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Television, said: "When I watched all the film, I came to the conclusion that there was no war, no war at all. I remember the words of a Russian journalist who said it took him time to get to Baghdad, where he thought there would be another Stalingrad. But there was nothing. Not a single Iraqi soldier was seen."

During the same session, Mohammed Sheraz, editor of FENS South and Central Asia Report, based in Pakistan, said: "Most journalists in the West quoted intelligence and other sources which they said were credible. Why should such sources be credible? On September 11 (2001) we saw a major failure of intelligence."

Colonel Christopher Langton, Head of Defence Analysis at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), was asked if he believed journalists were targeted deliberately in Iraqi conflict.
He replied: "One thing for which I criticise our US brothers in arms is that their spokesmen say these things happen in war. But this has become a mantra for this military machine, which I think, is a great disadvantage. It is unfortunate but I don't think there is deliberate targeting of journalists."

Economic Context:

Undeniably, the strategic and economic significance of the Middle East's oil reserves is a major reason for the international community's interest in the area. Although vehemently denied by Washington, oil is also viewed by some people as a motivating force behind the US-led war in Iraq.

In recent years, this oil focus has expanded eastwards to the Caspian Sea binding the Eurasia region with Iran and Russia. This has led to big rises in investment - domestic and foreign - and increased scrutiny mainly by the international media, with possible corruption a potential big issue.

The importance of the Caspian Sea to surrounding countries was re-emphasised by senior officials from Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. They also raised some concerns, interlaced with words such as "security", "challenges", "threats" and "Great Game" - the rush for domination of Afghanistan and the surrounding area in the 19th Century.

Mehti Safari, Iran's Special Representative on Caspian issues, criticised media coverage of the Caspian and its enormous hydrocarbon reserves. "This coverage is helping to re-establish the issue of the Great Game," he said.

This raises the tantalising question of whether a new Great Game, focused on the Caspian Sea, will become one of the major geopolitical issues in the 21st Century?

Following up on a question from the floor on why there was relatively little media coverage of the Caspian in some Eurasian regional media, Kairat Abuseitov, Kazakhstan's First Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, said: "The main topic is security… Not all of them (journalists) follow the issue of security."
Differences between the media and officials on the panel emerged after session chairman Richard Quest, CNN's Senior Business Editor (Europe), said: "Everyone says the same thing - not enough is done to cover bribery and corruption, where the money goes, how it is spent and political accountability. We are talking about billions of dollars that are involved."

Victor Kaluzhniy, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister and President Vladimir Putin's Special Representative for the Caspian Region, said: "What you are saying now looks like the work of muck-rakers looking for dirty facts… this is not decent journalism." Iran's Mehti Safari said: "This is a private matter."
This elicited a series of responses from the conference hall floor, ranging from comments such as: "There is only one way to stop corruption and that is not to give bribes and for officials to be honest", "Corruption is a burning issue for our region" and "This is not a forum for politician-bashing".

Conspiracy theories involving corruption, the "War on Terror" and other issues were given full rein at the conference, even involving the outbreak of the 'flu like virus causing SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) that has hit Asia and spread as far as Canada, causing more than 400 deaths.

In an emergency debate on the challenges to media organisations posed by the story, one speaker suggested that SARS was an American "plot", to distract attention from the war in Iraq. Why did it start in China? Because, the speaker said, China - a Permanent Member of the UN Security Council - was against the invasion of Iraq.

"The problem with conspiracy theories is that they tend to get a bit of a life and then people disregard the facts," conference chairman Riz Khan noted.

Cultural Context:

What causes terrorism and are we witnessing a "Battle of Civilisations"? These burning issues come under the banner of an EAMF cornerstone - to promote dialogue and cultural understanding between East and West, with special reference to reporting in the West of the Eurasian region following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

A presumption in the West that its mode of operation and values should be replicated automatically across the democratised world immediately came in for criticism from panelists, chaired by Georges Leclere, Executive Director of the International Council of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the United States.

Kazakhstan's President Nazarbayev addressed the issue in his opening address to the Forum, quoting the 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche - "Facts do not exist. There is only interpretation." The president also spoke about what some people call a "battle between civilisations" in today's world.
Vitaliy Tretyakov, editor-in-chief of Russia's Mirovaya Energeticheskaya Politika (World Energy Policy), said: "I disagree with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who says he does not see any clash of civilisations in recent events… I think Europe continues to be the civilisation leader of the world on one hand but on the other I think we have sunk into a new Dark Age period."

The United States also came in for criticism. "I think what is going on in the world today is the Third World War but without the destruction level of the First and Second World Wars… I do not think that the United States is the symbol of Western civilisation. There is a barbaric nature in the United States," Akram Khouzam, Moscow Bureau Chief for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera Television, said from the floor.
Asserting that the "modern information environment" was dictated by international news agencies, with all their resources, Mikhail Kozhokin, editor-in-chief of Russia's Izvestia newspaper, said: "We had the terms (from the Western media) of 'occupational troops' and then 'anti-Iraqi coalition'. Saddam was called 'president' and then sometimes 'dictator'."

The looting of museums and other such sites in Iraq in areas secured by US-led forces, despite what UNESCO said were prior warnings to Washington to guard against such action, came in for criticism.
The causes of terrorism were also discussed. President Nazarbayev said earlier the origins of terrorism could not be attributed to just one reason. "… It is evident that this is a complex of problems caused by poverty, poor development, low educational levels, political interest and the history of different countries."
Chingiz Aitmatov, Kyrgyzstan's Ambassador to Belgium and a noted writer, said: "The main cause of terrorism in the modern world is poverty. The mass media should concentrate their efforts on covering attempts to overcome poverty, which in turn will help to overcome terrorism and stabilize the world."
Giulio Pecora, Chief Foreign Editor of Italy's ANSA news agency, said: "I do not know whether physical poverty creates terrorism or not. But one thing is sure: Cultural poverty creates terrorism because it creates lack of tolerance, which leads to violence."