journalism & war

Encouraging reporters to become emotionally involved in the stories they cover is a worrying new trend argues the BBC’s David Loyn. He calls for objectivity. Des Freedman sees this as admirable but naive; the problems lie with the larger commercial forces that structure news rather than individual journalists. The debate journies with war reporters through Africa, the Middle East and Chechya, and back to the UK where David Elstein complains about the BBC's coverage during the war in Iraq; Danny Schecter and Lance Bennett both give the US media an earfull for failing to perform critically. Also: what has a philosopher to say about truth and objectivity in journalism?

Wednesday 16th November

The rapid evolution of Al-Shabab’s media and insurgent “journalism”

Christopher Anzalone, 16 November 2011

The evolution of Al-Shabab’s media arm provides a window into the group’s overall maturation as an insurgent movement that has endorsed key elements of Al-Qaeda Central’s ideology while still focusing primarily on waging a domestic insurgency inside Somalia.

Friday 17th June

The foreign correspondent: James Cameron, 1911-85

David Hayes, 17 June 2011

A voice of wry observation and quiet authority that made humane sense of distant events to a domestic public helped James Cameron become the most respected international journalist in post-1945 Britain. But is there room for his world-reporting craft in a very different media age, asks David Hayes.

Monday 11th May

The wrong target: air strike, legal limit, human voice

John Wooding, 11 May 2009

AfPak, Iraq, Lebanon, Gaza...how to break the pattern of "tragic accidents" that devour civilians?

Tuesday 11th December

“Information intervention”: a test of democratic intent

Laura Kyrke-Smith, 11 December 2007

The architects of democratic intervention must let the media flourish

Tuesday 20th November

The media and the war: seeing the human

Philip Bennett, 20 November 2007

Reporting of war needs to put civilian victims at the centre of the story

Tuesday 4th September

Halabja: whom does the truth hurt?

Adel Darwish, 4 September 2007

The 1988 poison attack on a Kurdish village should discomfort more than Saddam's henchmen (archive)

Monday 18th June

The media and Africa: doing bad by doing "good"?

Charlie Beckett, 18 June 2007

Media reporting of complex issues needs to escape the curse of formula

Tuesday 30th January

Ryszard Kapuciñski: the interpreter

Wiktor Osiatyński, 30 January 2007

The renowned Polish journalist was a voice for pluralism, tolerance, freedom and dignity, says his former colleague Wiktor Osiatyñski.

Thursday 25th January

Ryszard Kapuscinski: from Poland to the world

Neal Ascherson, 25 January 2007

The foreign correspondent's decades-long observation and insight revealed truths of power from Tehran and Addis Ababa to Warsaw itself, says Neal Ascherson.

Wednesday 7th December

The al-Jazeera revelation

Saleh Bechir, 7 December 2005

George W Bush’s musings about bombing the leading Arab satellite TV station betray hard truths about the United States’s “war on terror”, says Saleh Bechir.

Wednesday 5th October

The numbers game: death, media, and the public

Jean Seaton, 5 October 2005

When the media reports wars or disasters, why are death tolls announced before bodies are counted? And what does this do to our democracy? Jean Seaton, author of “Carnage and the Media”, dissects the numbers game.

Sunday 25th September

Guatemala: journalism under pressure

Marielos Monzón, 25 September 2005

Marielos Monzón, a Guatemalan journalist, received the 2005 Human Rights Journalism Under Threat award from Amnesty International. In her acceptance speech, she describes a land where new injustices have succeeded the horrendous violence of the 1954-96 period.

Tuesday 13th September

John Humphrys and the BBC's problem

David Elstein, 13 September 2005

A dispute over the political views of a leading BBC journalist reflects the concerns of the corporation’s hierarchy over its relationship with Britain’s New Labour government, says David Elstein.

Thursday 12th February

The Thing

David Hayes, 12 February 2004

Blair, Campbell, Gilligan, Kelly, Hutton, Davies, Dyke...Butler. What, in essence, has happened in Britain? A guide to an unlovely, unfinished affair.

Monday 9th February

Tall tales and home truths

Tom Bentley, 9 February 2004

Why are government and media in Britain so hostile to each other? Because each seeks to control the narratives that shape people’s lives, says Tom Bentley of the think-tank Demos. In the process, both are damaged – and so is democracy itself.

Friday 6th February

Re-presenting Africa: an interview with Sorious Samura

Sorious Samura and openDemocracy, 6 February 2004

How do you tell African stories that engage a world audience? The pioneering African news journalist Sorious Samura – a streetwise sophisticate – talks to Caspar Henderson and Caspar Melville of openDemocracy.net about war, famine, Africa and reality TV.

Thursday 5th February

How should the BBC be regulated?

James Cowling, 5 February 2004

The BBC is under the spotlight following Lord Hutton’s report, which criticised its coverage of the British use of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq war. How can the broadcaster recover from its latest collision with power?

Wednesday 4th February

Media power: telling truths to ourselves

John Lloyd, 4 February 2004

The crisis in Britain over the Iraq war, its intelligence and its reporting, is one of media as well as politics. John Lloyd asks: can journalism, both press and television, tell stories for active citizens rather than cynical couch potatoes?

Monday 2nd February

Tony Blair and Iraq: a public tragedy

David Marquand, 2 February 2004

The Hutton report reveals the crisis of the British model of governance. Tony Blair and the BBC alike have fed the public realm’s “manipulative populism”, says David Marquand. Will Blair’s leadership now be consumed by it?

Thursday 29th January