written by Tibor Hargitai printable version send your friend

Tuesday, 15 November 2011

The Independent correspondent Patrick Cockburn wrote a remarkable article on November 5, 2011 about a young Libyan man who guided him through Tripoli and acted as his translator. He was killed October 9 as he had joined the rebel fighters days before that. Cockburn tells about Ahmed, who was a highly-educated young man who wanted to help the revolutionaries in their battle. It also talks about the role of so-called fixers, locals who assist journalists behind the scenes in getting stories, accommodation, or anything else. “They take huge risks on our behalf and often play a key part in what successes we have in reporting from difficult places. And, while we have the luxury of leaving and telling "war stories" back home, our fixers stay in the danger zone and, sometimes, pay a terrible price.” [1]

Another Independent correspondent, Robert Fisk, in his 2005 book The Great War of Civilisation, provides the reader with first-hand accounts of his thirty-year experience in the Middle East. He writes about the fearlessness of the Iranian child soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war [2], the death of many Iraqis caused by the dire economic sanctions imposed on Iraq in the 1990s [3], and the fact that the National Archaeological Museum was looted and pillaged during the 2003 invasion with no American troops in sight. Those troops were at the ministries of trade and oil. [4]

A third journalist who opens up to his readers in the form of a book on how the Middle East is actually not how we see it on the news, is Joris Luyendijk. Luyendijk spent five years in the region, from 1998 to 2003, working for both the major news broadcast as well as the major newspapers. In his book, People Like Us: Misrepresenting the Middle East, he describes the fact that the news may at times be manipulated and provide misinformation. He talks about the “Law of Scissors,” which “reduces reality on television to what is airable.” [5]

These journalists offer us readers a much deeper insight into what is actually going on during the events across the world which make it to the “news.” The daily news hours on national television across the globe lack relevant, fundamental insights which would put into perspective what we see on television. Putting things into perspective requires time. These news hours are too short and too focused on viewing figures. Also, in the newspapers the goal is to get enough readers to remain profitable. If you do not have enough viewers or readers your program/newspaper will no longer continue in the future. Important to note is that here the national news broadcasts are scrutinized and not the news channels like Al Jazeera English, which does offer very significant amounts of background information to the news it broadcasts.

Here is just one example of a news broadcast which was incomplete, and clearly lacked perspective. On November 5 the Dutch news program, RTL Nieuws, reported on the likelihood of a military confrontation between Iran and Israel, in light of the then soon-to-be-published IAEA report about the true nature of the Iranian nuclear program, which is believed to show strong indication that the program is not only for peaceful purposes. The striking thing was what came along with the report—groups of pro-regime demonstrators who were chanting “away with America” and showing posters which read “Wanted dead or alive, Barack Obama terrorist.” The news reporter states during the showing of these pictures: “The Iranians maintain that they only produce energy with their nuclear program. They see America as Satan.” Then there is a girl saying: “Single-handedly I kick America's ass and there is nothing they can do.” [6] That is the end of the broadcast and nothing is put in perspective—the presented information on Iran is selective and shows the state as a whole. Do all the Iranians have this opinion? Why would people think like that? Perhaps the Iranian regime might have something to do with the way the people on the street think? Or perhaps the 1953 coup of the most democratic president Iran ever had which was replaced with an American puppet? And what is Tehran's reaction to the IAEA report?

Fisk's and Luyendijk each give their views on journalism in their respective books. In Fisk's words: “When we journalists fail to get across the reality of events to our readers, we have not only failed in our job; we have also become a party to the bloody events that we are supposed to be reporting. If we cannot tell the truth about the shooting down of a civilian airliner - because this will harm 'our' side in a war or because it will cast one of our 'hate' countries in the role of victim or because it might upset the owner of our newspaper - then we contribute to the very prejudices that provoke wars in the first place...” [7] And in Luyendijk's words: “News was constructed in such a way that I did write about 'angry men' burning flags and scandalising slogans, but I didn't have any space to explain what was happening beyond those scenes. On pictures and on TV they seemed like a mass, but on the spot you saw how few these furious men were, that they only took out their lighter [to burn the flags] when the cameras were rolling, and that they would then go home for supper. In the meanwhile in the rest of the town you had children going to school, trams doing their routes, and on the market tomatoes were on sale.” [8] Misinformation is a political tool to hide the errors/crimes committed by one party and causing suffering to those who did not commit any crime.

Luyendijk's following quote highlights the need to put things in perspective. He had experienced a bombardment in Gaza and thereafter better understood what people feel in those situations. “This is what I miss the most in the media. Pictures of young children hiding in a corner, and hysterical partners kicking and screaming because they are completely confused. Stories about girls in puberty who mutilate themselves so they can feel pain that they can order themselves. How during these bombardments out of the loudspeakers of the mosque Quran verses are recited to pull the people through their agony. You never see that, also not on Al Jazeera [Arabic in the late 1990s/early 2000s]. They stick with the Arab taboo of showing one's vulnerability and sadness, and accompany their horrific pictures of death and the wounded with texts about the “courageous determination of the Iraqi people.” This is what I had already learned from the bombardments in Gaza: the term “clean war” belongs in the group of pregnant virgin and democratic dictator.” [9] This part of the article which Luyendijk published in the NRC newspaper shows the intensity of what effect events like bombardments have on people on the ground.

Offering journalists space to report about their personal experiences would offer much more information to the reader/viewer than reporting about “another” suicide attack in Baghdad or Afghanistan, or anti-American demonstrations in Iran. It would allow the viewer/reader to see what is really going on when something big happens. The question which the news does not ask is: why did this happen? If the news tends to misinform the laymen who watch it on the television or read it in the newspaper, should there be no news hour at all or should it rather come in a different form?

*All the translations in this article are as literal as possible for the sake of objectivity.

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[1] Patrick Cockburn, “My Friend, the Fixer”, The Independent November 5 2011

[2] Robert Fisk, “The Great War of Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East,” (London: Harper Perennial, 2006), pp. 248-250

[3] Ibid., p. 865

[4] Ibid., pp. 1221-1223

[5] Joris Luyendijk, “Het Zijn Net Mensen: Beelden uit het Midden-Oosten,” (Amsterdam: Podium, 2006) p. 124

[6] RTL Nieuws, “Iran werkt aan vernietigende kernbom,” RTL Nieuws, November 5 2011. Accessed from: http://www.rtl.nl/xl/#/u/481157f2-5e65-4934-9fbd-6c4264d577bd/

[7] Robert Fisk, pp. 333-334

[8] Joris Luyendijk, pp. 41-42

[9] Ibid., 212