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10/18/2005:

"Killing Civlians With Impunity"

Nine-Second Coverage For Dozens of Dead Iraqi Women and Children
Last night's BBC Newsnight programme reported the deaths of 70 "Iraqi militants" in US air raids on the western Iraqi city of Ramadi. The item lasted just nine seconds. This included three seconds of scepticism from an Iraqi doctor who reported that in fact civilians were amongst the dead. Viewers' attention was then rapidly diverted elsewhere; a familiar pattern of mainstream news coverage.
A BBC news online report titled "US strikes kill '70 Iraq rebels'", also led with the US military version of events. Perhaps by way of a nod to increasing levels of public frustration with 'embedded' journalism, the phrase "Iraq rebels" at least appeared in quotes. The report also added a cursory note of caution in the second paragraph: "eyewitnesses are quoted saying that many [of the dead] were civilians". (BBC news online, October 17, 2005; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4349032.stm)

A Media Lens reader wrote to Pete Clifton, the BBC's news online editor:
"Regarding the BBC article 'US strikes kill "70 Iraq rebels"', isn't it biased to include the US quote in the headline?

"I'm sure you'd agree an alternative such as 'Iraqis: many civilians die in US attack' is biased and would be avoided.

"Why not choose a neutral headline to avoid contentious claims, such as 'Dozens killed in US strikes'?" (Darren Smith, message board, www.medialens.org, October 17, 2005)

Compare the emphasis and extent of the Newsnight and BBC online reports with today's press release from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN):
"Two days of US air attacks against insurgents in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi have caused heavy casualties among the city's civilian population, a doctor and a senior Iraqi government official in Ramadi said."

IRIN go on to quote Ahmed al-Kubaissy, a senior doctor at Ramadi hospital:
"We have received the bodies of 38 people in our hospital and among them were four children and five women. The relatives said they had been killed by air attacks in their homes and in the street."
IRIN also quote a senior Iraqi government official in the city, who reported: "three houses had been totally destroyed in the air attacks on Sunday and Monday and 14 dead civilians had been found inside them. A further 12 civilians had been critically injured in the same air strikes."

The official described the US attack as "a cowardly action... [adding] that if any insurgents have been killed, many more civilians have been buried with them over the past two days". (IRIN, 'Iraq: Women and children killed in US air strikes on Ramadi, doctor says,' October 18, 2005)
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