11 January 2013 - BBC: 'Early' End to a Ten Year War and Occupation?
14 September 2011 - Iraq internal violence is used to call for prolonging of US occupation
29 August 2011 - Wasted money on wars: blame the invaded
14 July 2011 - NATO not mentioned when reporting on Libyan rebel's human rights abuses
20 June 2011 - Which is worse: killing civilians or spending money to do it?

20 June 2011 - Brian Haw was 'in the wrong place'?
7 June 2011 - Libya not the only one practicing 'media manipulation'
2 June 2011 - Discussion of the human rights abuses by Libyan rebels
22 April 2011 - The 'biggest problems' with the use of US drones in war
21 March 2011 - George Galloway Interview

Syrian Conflict: Biases on International Involvement in the UK Media
The Editors, 17 June 2013

Barack Obama's decision to further arm the Syrian rebels, which has prompted Iran to respond by sending 4,000 troops to support Bashar Al-Assad, has been met by the BBC's Mark Mardell, currently travelling with Obama, not by high-level alarm at the potential repercussions of the internationalisation of the Syrian conflict, but...

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UK Media Helps Pave Road to War on Syria
The Editors, 8 May 2013

The Syrian conflict has been accompanied by a distinct media narrative. Within this narrative - which poses a binary division between the forces engaged in the conflict, identifying the players as good (the rebels, who must receive 'our' support) and bad (the government) - the role the West must play is...

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Don't mention the occupation: BBC Newsnight on Palestinian Application for Non-state Observer Status
Peter Allen, 3 April 2013

In my previous article on Newsnight's coverage of Israel/Palestine I looked at the discussion of a possible Israeli invasion of Gaza - in a report responding to fast moving events - and how an Israeli perspective was used to structure it. This time, I am going to analyse a different kind...

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A Case Study of BBC Newsnight Reporting of Israel/Palestine
Peter Allen, 25 March 2013

'Why is this lying bastard lying to me?' is a remark about interviewing politicians commonly attributed to Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman (actually originally made by Louis Heren of The Times). For those of us who watch Newsnight and its like the question we need to ask is not only 'why', but also...

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Reporting on Syria: How the Media Designates a Role for the UK
The Editors, 20 March 2013

'We believe that a people is in danger today [...] we have to give the Syrian opposition the means finally to gain the upper hand, that is the departure of Bashar al-Assad', announced French president Francois Hollande recently, while David Cameron explained that 'what we want to do is work with...

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The Representation of Torture in the 'War on Terror'
Josh Watts, 11 February 2013

In the mainstream media, we are presented with 'a "war on terror" conducted by a "civilized" West against a less civilized "other"'1. There are obvious flaws with this narrative. For example, even the barest of bones of the 'civilized' West's historical record demolishes its proclaimed values and objectives. Thus, a nation...

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Legitimising Violence in Reporting on International Conflict
The Editors, 4 February 2013

The media's portrayal of international conflict often implicitly expresses judgement on the justness or otherwise of the use of force. This is evident in the differing approaches taken towards the reporting of acts of war, in which the issue of violence is portrayed by turn as legitimate or criminal, depending on...

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Whitewashing an Assault: BBC Coverage of the Israel-Gaza Ceasefire
The Editors, 22 November 2012

Last night a ceasefire came into effect after a week of attacks on Gaza which left over 150 Palestinians dead (at least 40 of them children) and rocket fire into Israel which left 5 Israelis dead. Before the news of the ceasefire became the front-page headline on the BBC News website,...

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Siding with the Powerful: UK Media Coverage of the Assault on Gaza
The Editors, 16 November 2012

The BBC News, and particularly the reports from Diplomatic Correspondent Jonathan Marcus, on the ongoing Israeli military attacks on the Gaza Strip has presented the violence as little more than a defensive policy manoeuvre by Israel, whose government, in Marcus's view, 'clearly wants' another ceasefire. On Wednesday Marcus wrote that the Israeli...

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Luring an Attack: Julian Borger Claims Insight Into Iran's Motives
The Editors, 16 November 2012

Last week news reports emerged that Iranian warplanes had fired on a US Predator surveillance drone over the Gulf waters on the 1st November, 5 days before the US presidential elections. News of the incident was suppressed by the US until after the elections, we were told. As is standard practice in...

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The Treasures of War: The Today Programme on 'Britain's Great Adventure in Basra'
The Editors, 26 October 2012

Radio 4's Today programme of 16 October provided rare, frank insight into the priorities behind the British occupation of Iraq, and the inherent entanglement between the military effort and 'British business'. Presenter John Humphrys discussed the closure of the British consulate in Basra with financier Andrew Alderson and executive chairman of...

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Alarm and Hypocrisy: When Retaliation is Unacceptable to the Media
The Editors, 3 October 2012

The Independent's 'legendary pedant', Guy Keleny, recently highlighted the hypocrisy of press reporting on nuclear weapons: 'It is an iron law of journalese usage that every nuclear power in the world has a nuclear weapon - except one. Britain alone occupies a higher moral plane, and deploys not a weapon but...

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All the Facts on Agent Orange?
Josh Watts, 24 August 2012

On the back page of its World news section, The Independent relayed a tiny 106 word Associated Press report, that the United States is 'beg[inning] a landmark project to clean up a dangerous chemical [dioxin] left from the defoliant Agent Orange, 50 years after American planes first sprayed it on Vietnam's...

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America's Secret War: Much Omitted During Clinton's Diplomacy Tour
Josh Watts, 20 July 2012

On 11 July 2012, The Independent's Andrew Buncombe reported on US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's visit 'to the scene of one of the darkest episodes of US foreign policy' - Laos, where she 'saw first-hand the aftermath of America's "secret war" in which about two million tons of bombs were...

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How the Media Fails to Highlight the Illegality of US Drone Strikes
Josh Watts, 14 June 2012

Under the Obama administration, the frequency of US drone strikes - what Professors Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann have termed 'Washington's Phantom War' - have increased dramatically.1 Indeed, President Barrack Obama's 'speciality', John Pilger observes, 'is the use of drones armed with Hellfire missiles against defenceless people'. Confirming this assertion,...

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Nick Cohen's Deceptive Portrayal of Western Intentions in Call for Intervention in Syria
Steve Nutt, 13 June 2012

Nick Cohen, writing in the Observer on 10 June, demands that the 'guilt ridden' leaders of the Liberal West shake off the hangover of the Bush-Blair years and press reset, a reset on the facade of Barack Obama's mission to forge dialogue with Iran, with Russia, to offer a hand instead...

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Justifying Targeted Assassinations: the BBC on the Effectiveness of Drone Strikes
The Editors, 7 June 2012

In support of the ongoing policy of US drone strikes in Pakistan, US defence secretary Leon Panetta stated that "This [policy] is about our sovereignty as well". His comment came in response to claims by Pakistan that their sovereignty is at risk as a result of the drone attacks. Despite the...

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The Unworthy Victims of US Drones Attacks
The Editors, 8 May 2012

Many victims of acts of terrorism or state aggression receive the sympathy they deserve from the international media. In the case of certain aggressors however, the victims are 'unworthy'. On behalf of these victims, our media has little interest in consulting with experts on terrorism or international relations. Nor do they...

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Afghanistan: Maintaining the Facade of the 'Mission'
Steve Nutt, 20 April 2012

In light of recent predictable events in Afghanistan, it is worth taking a long view of the NATO invasion and occupation to see if we can garner some sense of what the "mission" actually entails. The usual rhetoric concerns two related central matters: that NATO's presence is intended to prevent Afghanistan...

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Syria Intervention: Endorsement Masquerading as News in the Guardian
Steve Nutt, 13 April 2012

Media advocacy masquerading as news has a considerable precedent. Whether it be journalists looking for some 'sick action' in Somalia that might 'restore hope [...] in the capacity for governments taking a moral stance', or to provide western audiences with some much needed post-Cold War meaning in the flagrant PR exercise...

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Downplaying the Arms Trade: BBC Complicity
The Editors, 13 April 2012

David Cameron recently 'packed a plane full of business people' (in his own words) on a trip to Indonesia. Reporting on his 'trade tour of East and South East Asia', the news celebrated the securing of a '£326m Airbus Deal'. In a BBC report, it was pointed out that 'representatives from...

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An Attack on Iran Would Be Illegal. What Does the Media Say?
The Editors, 23 March 2012

The 'option' of a military attack on Iran by Israel, the UK and the US has been increasingly discussed in the UK media since 2011. Government threats of military action have come in various forms, with Israel warning of potential air strikes against Iran in the next few months, and Obama and...

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Cameron and Blair: The Media Continues to Dutifully Convey Intelligence 'Warnings'
The Editors, 7 March 2012

For the invasion of Iraq in 2003, 'top secret' intelligence was used to create a media storm concerning weapons of mass destruction which could be deployed in 45 minutes. Now, the media reports on a 'top-secret' briefing by MI6 to UK ministers on the 'Iranian Nuclear Threat'. The routine appears familiar:...

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Perspective Lacking as Allegations against Iran are Paraded through the Media
The Editors, 6 February 2012

Last week the Guardian's diplomatic editor, Julian Borger, reported on the 'increasing likelihood that Iran could carry out attacks in America or against US and allied targets around the world.' The claim was not his own of course; he was merely repeating without scrutiny that which was presented by James Clapper, the...

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How the UK Media Legitimise the Idea of a War on Iran
The Editors, 26 January 2012

The UK media has over the last three months obediently towed the line of western leaders in their increasingly hostile posturing towards Iran. Despite their reporting of (to give a few examples) a covert war on Iran, the entry of a US spy drone into Iranian airspace, and the recent assassination of...

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End of an Occupation: Whitewashing the Legacy of Iraq
The Editors, 16 December 2011

Iraq is now free, if you believe the news coverage of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's diplomatic visit to the US. In what seems to be hailed as a step forward, the BBC report that Maliki has 'called on US business leaders to invest in his country'. Maliki is reported as saying that...

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Dan Hodges: 'Keeping the Peace' by Calling for War
The Editors, 8 December 2011

In a low-point for the Telegraph blogosphere earlier this week, Dan Hodges wrote that Britain needs a 'Start the War Coalition' to function as a response to the existing Stop the War Coalition (StW) which has been working to prevent and stop British wars since 2001. Running with the Orwellian logic...

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Language Creep: Iran and the Nuclear 'Threat'
The Editors, 27 November 2011

The IAEA report on the state of Iran's nuclear programme released on 9 November didn't quite present western governments with the doomsday scenario they had hoped for. The run-up to the report's publication became a platform for voices to be raised in the media calling for yet another war, as though...

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The Media Beats the War Drum for an Attack on Iran
Graham Bell, 4 November 2011

“Iran’s nuclear ambitions have already started a war with the west”, reads the headline of Julian Borger’s piece in the Guardian yesterday, in which he discusses operations of espionage and sabotage in Iran started by the Bush government in 2007. The headline would have you believe that Iran brought these acts...

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Guardian 'Investigation' Claims Vindication for Libya War
Amy Woods, 4 October 2011

“How Cameron swept aside Libya sceptics”, read The Guardian’s front page article, written by Patrick Wintour and Nicholas Watt, yesterday (3 October 2011). The paper also contained a “special report” by the two writers looking at “how the Arab spring in Libya transformed him from a reluctant to a passionate interventionist”. Absurdly...

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Afghanistan: Ten Years of the Grand Narrative
Steve Nutt, 30 September 2011

The war in Afghanistan is fast approaching its 10th anniversary. In recent weeks we have seen coordinated attacks in Kabul and a number of high profile assassinations by the "Taliban" or the "Haqqani Taliban", NATO's opponents in its increasingly confused and labyrinthine occupation. From the start, the war in Afghanistan has been...

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In Perspective: a Comparison of BBC Reporting with 1960's Propaganda
Graham Bell, 19 August 2011

Suez in Perspective, a Central Office of Information film made in 1960, four years after the Suez Canal Crisis, provides - based on what we now know - an imbalanced, and in some ways, false account of the 1956 British invasion of Port Said and the Suez Canal. The film, which...

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Interview with Former Soldier Joe Glenton
The Editors, 26 July 2011

Former soldier, Joe Glenton, who joined the Royal Logistic Corps in 2004, spent four months in prison for refusing to return to Afghanistan, following his first tour there in 2006. We discussed by email his experience as a subject of media focus. Q: While on duty in Afghanistan, you saw differences between...

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The Libyan Baby Girl that Became a Wartime Propaganda Tool for Both Sides
Graham Bell, 8 June 2011

Arthur Ponsonby wrote in 1928 that "when war is declared, truth is the first casualty". Embedded journalists during war time are in some ways tools for the military of the countries they represent. As we saw with the invasion of Iraq, news reports represent one side, often censoring crucial information. Anything...

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Libya: A look at Ten Weeks of the War Media Machine
Graham Bell, 2 June 2011

News of the NATO extension for their mission in Libya came on the same day as news that over 700 civilians have died as a direct result of NATO strikes since the enforcement of a no-fly zone. Looking back to the start of the war, how did the BBC and...

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Maintaining Western Fear After bin Laden's Death
Graham Bell, 4 May 2011

The news of Bin Laden’s death after the weekend has sparked a combination of celebration, suspicion, debate and conspiracy theories. In Washington, crowds gathered to chant “U-S-A, U-S-A” in a patriotic flag-waving display and celebrate Bin Laden’s death. In the UK, the BBC News showed a looping reel of images all...

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Cheerleading for the War on Libya
Graham Bell, 1 April 2011

When war (or 'humanitarian intervention') breaks out, the news very quickly becomes nothing more than a voice for the government. Embedded journalists provide updates to the country as though they are reporting from a war movie. Newspapers and news websites give us statistics on war planes and other machinery as though...

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Libya Air Strikes: A Picture Paints a Thousand Words
Bob Rainmore, 22 March 2011

For this piece I will briefly compare the make up of two differing photo reels from the BBC and the Guardian’s website. The table below gives the percentage of pictures that a specific item appears in. Note that the percentages do not sum to 100% as some pictures contain more than...

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Lots of Attention on the Iranian Navy
Graham Bell, 22 February 2011

Today, the 22nd February, the BBC has given quite a lot of attention to the movement of Iranian warships through the Suez Canal. As scores of protesters are being killed by brutal regimes in Libya, Morocco and Bahrain, big news has been made about the seemingly insignificant passage of two Iranian...

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Selective Reporting from the Chilcot Inquiry
Graham Bell, 21 January 2011

By the end of 2010, the US/UK led war in Iraq had left one million people dead and over four million without a home. For this, Tony Blair expressed his regrets on the 21st January, to which the members of the public said “too late”. After reporting this snippet of drama from...

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