World Tribunal on Iraq: Media Held Guilty of Deception

[G_j]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0214-07.htm

Published on Monday, February 14, 2005 by Inter-Press Service

World Tribunal on Iraq: Media Held Guilty of Deception

by Dahr Jamail


ROME - A peoples tribunal has held much of Western media guilty of inciting violence and deceiving people in its reporting of Iraq.

The World Tribunal on Iraq (WTI), an international peoples initiative seeking the truth about the war and occupation in Iraq made its pronouncement Sunday after a three- day meeting. The tribunal heard testimony from independent journalists, media professors, activists, and member of the European Parliament Michele Santoro.

The Rome session of the WTI followed others in Brussels, London, Mumbai, New York, Hiroshima-Tokyo, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Lisbon. The Rome meeting focused on the media role.

The informal panel of WTI judges accused the United States and the British governments of impeding journalists in performing their task, and intentionally producing lies and misinformation.

The panel accused western corporate media of filtering and suppressing information, and of marginalising and endangering independent journalists. More journalists were killed in a 14-month period in Iraq than in the entire Vietnam war.

..more..