Iraq: Hostile Journalism Environment

One of the most important wikileaks to occur coming from Iraq, hasn’t happened recently but had  far reaching repercussions after its disclosure. The July 12th Baghdad air strikes, which killed 12 civilians including two Reuters reporters, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldean . The two reporters were mistaken to have guns on them (they were carrying video cameras and cellphones). What was most shocking about the videos was the knowledge that you were about to watch someone be murdered alongside the callous responses of those committing these actions. These airstrikes were mentioned briefly in the NY Times piece we read that week and also has links to the original post done by NY Times. The wikileaks article describing the events is found here.

The immediate backlash to the release of these videos was questioning of the United States policies on rules of engagement. Some of the press conference responding to the 2007 Baghdad incident can be found in this youtube video, which also focused on Ethan McCord’s own account of what being in the US Army and the events of that day.

Part of what made this video so controversial was that Reuters had attempted for two years to obtain the video and Wikileaks was able to receive it and publish it. A big part of Wikileaks is the anonymity of their sources which both protects whistleblowers and makes the organization seem like a hacking site. Wikileaks continues to be a pain for governments everywhere, as it releases graphic and important news that these institutions were prefer to remain secret.

Social media within the last five years has had a significant impact on journalism within the Middle East from the Arab spring in 2010 to more recent beheadings of journalists within Iraq. Similar to the other places,  Iraq suffers and gains from the consequences of increased social media use. More people have access to news instantly as citizen journalists can post and explore hostile areas easier. However, false reports and prominence of more graphic topics also flood facebook and twitter feeds. Violence against journalists in Iraq is nothing new, especially since targeting of journalists occurs from both the Iraqi governments and terrorist groups. Citizen journalists through the use of social media have been successful in informing the public about events in Iraq.

On the other side, the use of social media by ISIS has created reasons for censorship of the internet in Iraq. ISIS’s app automatically upload tweets and other status updates for its followers creating an image of unified support that can trend on social media accounts as this The Atlantic article explains. The use of its beheading videos have been successful in drawing international public attention through its terror marketing.

ISIS’s social media presence has been so effective that one woman, Aqsa Mahmood, left Glasglow to become a martyr for the group. Her decision to leave was documented by CNN and highlighted how effective ISIS’s campaigns were in attracting supporters. Although Ms. Mahmood’s whereabouts were unknown, her last known location was in Syria. Her decision to join ISIS reflects upon the success of social media by members of ISIS. A negative side effect of this campaign is the conflation of all or the majority of Iraqis and/or Muslims as supporters of extremists groups, such as ISIS. It is too soon to tell what effects this will have on representation of Iraqis and Muslims in other forms of media.

“Journalists in Iraq face a double threat, from armed gangs gunning them down and prosecutors charging them, all because of what they write. The recent spate of assassinations of journalists has had a chilling effect on journalists, who risk being prosecuted by the very authorities that are supposed to protect them.” -Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director (Human Rights Watch, 2013)

Iraq is listed as number one on the Impunity Index by the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, which has linked 93 unsolved murders of journalists. Clearly, the dangers of working as a journalist in Iraq were illustrated by Sarah Leah Whitson who showed that both prosecution and danger comes from authorities and gangs alike. If a journalist is murdered, Iraq has the worst conviction rate out of all countries. The danger of journalism also effects citizen journalists, such as Al Hamdani. Al Hamdani, was a citizen journalist within Iraq stopped reporting after a sticky bomb on his car exploded near him.

Authorities in Iraq have used intimidation tactics such as citing license infringement, threats, and imprisonment for negative coverage of events. Additionally, a proposed cybercrime bill is targeting journalists as it could imprison anyone who harms the reputation of the country or publishes harsh or misleading facts as CPJ reports.

As I’ve mentioned in an early post, journalists also face the threat of censorship and a lack of access to internet as the Iraqi minister of Telecommunications has stopped internet or enforced blackouts of internet at certain times. The ministry has claimed that this is to thwart efforts by radical groups such as ISIS from encouraging more supporters to join them, and also to prevent more videos, such as those of journalists beheadings, from being posted.

Social media plays a crucial role in any citizen journalists mode of publication. Social media sites such as facebook and twitter are frequent mediums for publishing reports. Many citizen journalists will use video on whatever is available, such as their cellphones to film recent events. Cellphones and other cameras can also capture occurrences as well.

In addition to Al Hamdani, Michael Yon (his photo, Little Girl, was covered here) is listed as a prominent citizen journalist in Iraq by NPR. He has been embedded with American troops in Iraq for several years and covers a variety of topics such as bio-surveillance, events in Thailand, and situations in Burma; however, he focuses mostly on events in Afghanistan and Iraq. Most of his funding comes from his supporters, who contribute to his writing through a pay account.

Our comm class recently watched Restrepo, a film by Sebastian Junger and Tim Herthington. The film focused on small group of soldiers in the Korangal valley of Afghanistan as they struggle to maintain both the physical outpost of Restrepo and deal with the emotional effects war has on them. As a form of journalism promoting awareness, I found this film to be balanced when dealing with most issues these soldiers are exploring, however, I would criticize the film for being self-censoring. The film deals aggressively with the realities of the war and moves gracefully between periods of realization that these men are in a war zone and happiness these men also experience at the same time. My criticism of self-censorship comes from the way the men’s personal lives are presented. I feel that there was more raw emotion, more sexism, and other methods of coping that were not presented. I would venture that these portions were cut to prevent insulting the men or were censored by the American government.

My own personal response to the film was jarring. It was much more in depth then articles such as the NYTimes or Vanity Fair had covered, and I felt more emotional ties to the story presented as a result of the video over the articles. I personally found watching the film the most effective way of communicating these events, particularly regarding the reality of the conflict.

As Chimamanda Adichie has pointed out, , there are dangers to covering a single story. Within Iraq, this has never been truer where frequently coverage of events focus on Western governments attacking extremist and militant terrorist groups. When a series of massive floods destroyed cities and infrastructures in southern and central Iraq from May 2013 to November 2013, I was predicting a single story coverage of the events.

An image used to represent the flooding

I was expecting to see stories of inept government responses to the crisis alongside pictures or interviews of struggling Iraqis who were not being helped by these agencies. Finding coverage of the natural disaster, I was not that shocked to see exactly those themes covered. In “Floods Cause Severe Damage in Southern Iraq” by Al Monitor, the one image available was that of Iraqis wading in flood waters. Much of the article stressed the government’s reaction to the flooding including the evacuation of people, the promise to compensate people for their crops, and officials reacting to the collapse of a dam. In another article, it suggested that previous historical events were to blame for the response to the flooding. Other articles such as “Floods in Iraq, May 2013” and “Flooding in Southern, Central Iraq kills 11” just added to the single story presented, one of struggling people and incompetent government.

Another image showing flooding in Iraq

What I was most disappointed on after reading about these floods, was the lack of other reporting being done. Out of the three articles, I found they all gave similar reporting on the floods.  I was left with questions of what happened after the floods, why wasn’t the government’s or other agencies reactions to the floods shown or documented in photos, and why did this flooding take such as low importance in international journalism during these weeks?