Beheading dominates media worldwide
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| Wed, 05-12-2004 - 11:54am |
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 · Last updated 8:25 a.m. PT
Beheading dominates media worldwide
By MICHAEL MCDONOUGH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- Amnesty International condemned the videotaped beheading in Iraq of American civilian Nick Berg, an act which Prime Minister Tony Blair's office described Wednesday as "barbaric." But Iranian radio accused Western media of using the slaying to distract attention from the abuse of prisoners in Iraq.
Images from the film showing Berg and his captors just before the killing dominated TV broadcasts and newspaper front pages in many countries.
A Kuwaiti newspaper ran a picture of one of the killers holding the severed head and some Greek TV stations showed the actual execution, although they obscured the head. The full video was posted on an al-Qaida-linked Web site.
"Such acts are unjustifiable under any circumstances and constitute a serious crime under international law," London-based human rights group Amnesty International said of the slaying. "Those responsible should be brought to justice in line with international standards."
The masked men who killed Berg claimed they were angered by coalition abuses of Iraqi prisoners. The video, posted Tuesday, showed them pushing Berg to the floor, severing his head and holding it up. His body was found near a highway overpass in Baghdad on Saturday, the same day he was beheaded, a U.S. official said.
The video bore the title "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi shown slaughtering an American," referring to an associate of Osama bin Laden believed responsible for a wave of suicide bombings in Iraq.
Blair's official spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, described the killing as "a truly barbaric act," adding: "There is no justification for this kind of act in a civilized world."
In Greece, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos said the execution provoked a "sense of abhorrence. ... The Greek government condemns violence wherever it comes from."
Most Greek TV stations aired segments of the video, some stopping just before the beheading while others obscured the head during the execution.
Other broadcasters in Britain, Spain, China, Germany, Italy and Belgium showed images of Berg kneeling on the floor with his black-clad captors standing behind him.
"What follows is too cruel to show," said Belgium's VRT public broadcaster, which aired the video up to the point where Berg was thrown to the ground after one attacker took out a knife.
Germany's mass-circulation Bild newspaper ran a picture of Berg's captors holding up his severed head, eliciting condemnation from the German Journalists' Union.
"Naturally, newspapers have to report on this horrible act," union chairman Michael Konken said in a statement. "But the human slaughter recorded in the picture does not belong in the media."
Iranian radio accused the western media of showing pictures from the video for propaganda purposes.
"As a result, the issue of Iraqi prisoners' torture has been totally ignored by these media," the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran said.
"The American authorities too, have entered this news-making propaganda. These authorities have described the killing method of the American national as loathsome, and implicitly indicated that the American troops were justified to torture Iraqi prisoners."
Arab media reacted cautiously to the execution, with some newspapers conspicuously playing it down or even ignoring it.
Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, the big two satellite networks, aired edited snippets of the video. "The news story itself is strong enough," said Jihad Ballout, spokesman for Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television. "To show the actual beheading is out of the realm of decency."
Egypt's leading daily, Al-Ahram, ignored the beheading Wednesday. An editor said the news came too late for the paper to confirm the video's authenticity with the U.S. government.
Newspapers in Syria, where the government controls the press tightly, did not report the execution at all.
Five of Kuwait's seven dailies published the report with photographs on their front pages. The other two published brief reports. The Al-Siyassah daily ran two photos, including one with a masked militant holding up Berg's severed head.
(mm-rb-jl)
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"As a result, the issue of Iraqi prisoners' torture has been totally ignored by these media," the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran said.>>
Which was only a media feeding frenzy because CBS sensationalized the story by broadcasting those pictures.
Renee
So, it should have just been kept under the rug?
What? Just as horrid? abuse of certain sexual acts or embarrassment are not nearly as "horrid" as the video footage of a scared man getting beheaded. That is horrid! It is awful what the soldiers did to the Iraq prisoners but cutting of a man's head in front a camera with a KNIFE is downright nauseating (sp)?
First, the story has been out since January so they weren't breaking any news. Those involved had already been removed and were awaiting court martials, so they weren't trying to force the government to act on the problem. By releasing the photos, the media has further abused the victims by violating their civil rights, and have gone against the Geneva conventions, and has subjected them to so much public humiliation that one victim is leaving the country because he can't face his friends and family.
Just because the media has images doesn't mean they broadcast them. All the time they make judgements about what's appropriate to put out and what isn't. That's why we never see images of people jumping from the WTC anymore. That's why photos of dismembered mutilated bodies aren't shown after a murder. That's why we haven't seen the decaptitations of Daniel Pearl or Nick Berg.
Have you been paying attention to how the media has been reporting on Berg's death? They show Burg's picture & his words, but they do not show his head being sawed off while madmen are dancing about in joy and praising Allah because there is no news value in that, only sensationalism, and they don't want to inflame viewers.
There was absolutely no journalistic reason for CBS to broadcast those photos besides sensationalism. They acted completely irresponsibly and inflamed Muslims around the world. Burg's murderers most likely wouldn't have claimed to be acting to revenge abused Iraqis without those photos and he might even be alive today. You can bet that other coalition hostages being held have paid a price those photos, too. I pray to God that none of them will have to pay with their lives.
If you want to know how CBS could have reported the story responsibly while communticating exactly what was going on in that prison, tune in to FOX and watch how Shepard Smith reported Nick Berg's decaptiation.
Edited 5/12/2004 3:34 pm ET ET by wrhen
Renee
Those involved had already been removed and were awaiting court martials, so they weren't trying to force the government to act on the problem.
Some, but not all, had.
Those who were in the pictures were, their general was, and the investigation was on going. There is absolutely no indication that anything is or was trying to be covered up, and if the story did have any effect on the investigation, it wasn't dependent on releaseing those photos.
<>
And we know that's all that matters to you, right?
What's the only thing more degrading and demeaning to a muslim male to be stripped naked, subjugated to a woman, and forced into homoerotic positions and to perform sex acts in front of others? Broadcasting it in living color all over the world.
<>
And what do you imagine any American, let alone Rumsfeld, could have said to prevent the apoplectic fit those images put the Arab media into? Tell me the words you imagine coming from his mouth that would have prevented Nick Burg's slaughter.
<>
Then you know how the horror of the actions should have been communicated in CBS's story. They had no regard for anything other than sensationalizing it, which I understand they are now planning to rebroadcast for good measure.
Renee
Berg's Beheading: Gruesome. Disgusting. Merciless. Barbaric. Inhuman.
http://www.paknews.com/specialNews.php?id=2718&date1=2004-05-13
Beheading shocks Iraqis, who despair over violence.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2004/05/13/beheading_shocks_iraqis_who_despair_over_violence/
>"Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah harshly criticised the beheading and questioned the timing of a "horrible" act which drove the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US-led forces from the headlines.
"Hezbollah denounces this horrible act which does an immense wrong to Islam and Muslims by a group which falsely pretends to follow the precepts of the religion of pardon and essential human values," the party said in a statement. "<
Quote from....... http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/13/1084289801959.html
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