Rally: Iraq 5 years on
How the media sells war and why
With speakers:
Dahr Jamail, independent journalist in Iraq and author of “Beyond the Green Zone“
Nick Davies, award-winning Guardian journalist and author of “Flat Earth News“
Kim Sengupta, defence and diplomatic correspondent, the Independent
Lindsey German, national convenor, Stop the War Coalition
Venue: The Old Lecture Theatre, University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street (2 mins from Oxford Circus)
Date and time: Thursday April 10, 7pm
Called by: Media Workers Against the War
Tickets: £5, £3 (concessions)
On April 9, 2003, Baghdad “fell” to US troops. The event was welcomed by a torrent of gushing media coverage. When Saddam’s statue was toppled that day in Firdoz Square, the British media unleashed a string of superlatives. But Robert Fisk called it “the most staged photo-opportunity since Iwo Jima“.
Five years on, we have to say: the media have hardly changed in the way they lap up propaganda from the military and the government. The collusion of senior media editors in the blackout on Prince Harry in Helmand last month gave the military a propaganda coup, boosting the notion that Britain is fighting a glamorous and just war.
This event will ask how this has happened and how we can change the situation.
Buy your ticket for this event now:
For more information, email info@mwaw.net
Background information on Dahr Jamail:
Chemical weapons in Fallujah: How he broke the story
“I have interviewed many refugees over the last week coming out of Fallujah at different times from different locations within the city. The consistent stories that I have been getting have been refugees describing phosphorus weapons, horribly burned bodies, fires that burn on people when they touch these weapons, and they are unable to extinguish the fires even after dumping large amounts of water on the people.”
Dahr Jamail on Democracy Now, Nov 29, 2004
His new book: What the reviewers said
Beyond the Green Zone:
Dispatches from an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq
www.beyondthegreenzone.org
“While so much reporting from Iraq has remained embedded and wrong, Dahr Jamail’s courageous truth-telling from the frontline has been a beacon.”
John Pilger
“Essential for anybody who wants to know what is really happening in Iraq. A book which reports what Iraqis endure and what has happened to them during the occupation.”
Patrick Cockburn, foreign correspondent, The Independent, author, The Occupation
“From the earliest days of the war, Jamail has been a human conduit for the voices of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. In the face of tremendous personal risk, his commitment to the crucial, principled task of bearing witness has never wavered, and this extraordinary book is the result.”
Naomi Klein, author, The Shock Doctrine and No Logo
“What is chilling about Jamail’s accounts is the routine destructiveness of the US forces; how they demolish nearby homes after a roadside bomb, leave unexploded munitions in the fields of farmers who don’t give information, bulldoze orchards. Livelihoods destroyed, families displaced every day, incubating hatred. One of the worst episodes occurred when Jamail’s friend was caught by chance at prayer time in a mosque when worshippers were shot dead, with children trapped in the mayhem: a holy place desecrated in a US operation. We may know nothing of such routine details of the prosecution of this war, but these are the stories filling the Arabic media.”
Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian
March 11th, 2008 at 11:10 am
I support anything that can be done to stop the aggression of the Western Powers in Irak, Afghanistan and Palestine. I have spent a lot of time in Germany over the past few months and find that the politics there are more measured, although Merkel does not have the courage of her predecessprs. Here I find the politics abhorrent.
Vivien
March 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Dear Media Workers Against the War friends,
Thank you for organizing the “Media After 5 Years in Iraq” rally on April 10 http://www.mwaw.net/2008/03/11/rally/
I read that among the speakers you invited independent journalist Dahr Jamail, The Guardian’s journalist Nick Davies and The Independent journalist Kim Sengupta.
I will certainly come to listen to my friend Dahr Jamail, a brave and really independent reporter whose work put to shame much of the mainstream media. However I was wondering why among the speakers there are not David Cromwell or David Edwards of Medialens.org who have been working for many years on this issue and could give an extremely interesting contribute to your rally.
Thank you for your time and for all your work
In solidarity,
Gabriele Zamparini
March 11th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
I wish you all success with your rally. For the sake of peace and future generations, the one-way news media must die and be buried forever.
I offer my two minute YouTube in support of all those working for real media change.
“Fox News vs the people” :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHTyE_soY8w
March 19th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Erm the majority of the British media is against the war.
Heck even the rabid right-wing Daily Mail was against it.
The only newspaper which was and still is behind the war is The Sun but you can’t take any stance is takes on anything seriously.
I am against the war as you guys but I wish you and the Stop The War Coalition would stop portraying yourselves as a “brave” silent minority
April 11th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
What a fascinating and insightful meeting this was.
Hearing Nick Davies and Dahr Jamail for the first time, what they had to say was shocking and mind-blowing. It is chilling hearing things you always suspected was the case being confirmed, by people who have dedicated their lives to researching and exposing lies and propaganda (such as government and ‘intelligence’ agencies feeding false information to the media on a constant basis and editors lapping it up unquestioningly).
Highly refreshing to hear journalists who are actually interested in truth and justice rather than careerists who are happy to serve only the interests of the powerful.
I would recommend that everyone reads/listens to what these remarkable people have to say - I hope last night’s meeting will be up on the website soon.
April 21st, 2008 at 8:17 am
[…] Click here for high quality recording by Middle East Panorama Full details of the event here […]