- Newsnight
- 19 Mar 07, 03:09 PM
For Newsnight's Window on Iraq - a series of audio, video and text blogs as part of our - Mayada, a Baghdad GP, explains how doctors are finding it increasingly difficult to deliver healthcare.
I am a GP at a health centre in one of Baghdad’s poorer districts. It is not an area you would choose to work in but I hold on to my position for two reasons. The first is I get on very well with my colleagues and the second is because the area is relatively safe – at least during office hours – and this makes all the difference between having to give up your job or being able to continue.
The situation for the staff and patients has deteriorated a lot over the last year and as a result the services we are able to offer have suffered. It was much better when I started work here three years ago.
Continue reading "Iraq's failing health - Mayada, the GP"
- Newsnight
- 19 Mar 07, 02:08 PM
What will Iraq be like in 2020? Here at Newsnight we've dramatised two different futures for the country based on two academics' visions. We also want to know what you think will happen. What must happen in order for things to improve? Will democracy survive? And when will coalition forces leave? Join the debate below.
- Newsnight
- 19 Mar 07, 10:47 AM
To coincide with the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s week-long examination of the situation in Iraq four years after the US-led invasion, Newsnight has invited critics of the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s coverage of the conflict and its aftermath to set out their arguments. Here, , an online group that monitors mainstream media output, argues that ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ reporting too often follows the establishment lines. We're keen to debate the issue so read the piece and post your views and comments below.
The Bias In ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 'Balance'
The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s claim that it provides balanced news reporting does not stand up to scrutiny.
As Baghdad fell to US tanks on April 9, 2003, Andrew Marr, then the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s political editor, hailed the invasion as a great triumph. Of Tony Blair, Marr declared: "tonight he stands as a larger man and a stronger prime minister as a result". (Marr, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ 1, News At Ten, April 9, 2003)
This is the standard ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ version of objective news reporting. The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, took a different view of the invasion:
Indeed it would be hard to find a better example of the supreme war crime - the waging of a war of aggression.
Before the invasion, Bush and Blair insisted that the pretext was a "single
question": Would Iraq eliminate its weapons of mass destruction? As late as February 2003, Blair affirmed that Saddam could still save his regime:
When not a single weapon of mass destruction was found, the story quickly changed and ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ reporting changed with it: the liberation of Iraq, not its disarmament, we were told, was the guiding concern. The ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Washington correspondent, Matt Frei, said:
"There's no doubt that the desire to bring good, to bring American values to the rest of the world, and especially now to the Middle East... is now increasingly tied up with military power." (³ÉÈËÂÛ̳1, Panorama, April 13, 2003)
Continue reading "³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s Iraq coverage - biased or balanced?"
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