'Basra Fell 17 Times'

By Saeed Naqvi

Future wars will be fought in the mediascape. Does that mean there is no space for credible reporting anymore?

My first encounter with Western media's propaganda was during the Sino-Vietnam war in February 1978. I was in Beijing as part of the media team that had accompanied Atal Behari Vajpayee, then India's minister for external affairs, on a visit to China. Deng Xiaoping had said he would teach Vietnam a lesson. He made the statement without consulting Vajpayee, although other nonaligned countries like Yugoslavia had been informed.

The Indian delegation cut short what was said to be a historic visit, and left for home after that mandatory shopping in Hong Kong.

"How can the western media say anything about a war without having covered it from either of the fronts?"

I applied for permission to visit the front. The Chinese promised they would try. Two days later, they said a visit to the war front was not possible. I rushed to Bangkok where the ever helpful Abid Hussain (who retired as Ambassador to US) introduced me to a scion of the distinguished Bao Dai family who obtained for me the priceless visa for Hanoi in a jiffy. In Hanoi, the all-powerful secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, Xuan Thuy, arranged for me to be driven to a vantage point on the hill with a commanding view of Lang Son where the most decisive battle of the war was fought. The celebrating, rejoicing soldiers in Lang Son confirmed Vietnam's victory.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, Al Jazeera provided an alternative perspective. Leaders of the free world bombed Al Jazeera's offices in Kabul and Baghdad

The Indian Express front-paged the Lang Son story in which it was clear that Vietnam had won. Ranjit Sethi, who was in our Beijing mission, sent me an ecstatic note, but defence secretary Sushital Bannerjee was more cautious. Was I sure of my facts because the western media was saying quite the opposite?

"How can the western media say anything without having covered the war from either of the fronts?" I asked. I was the only foreign correspondent in Vietnam. The Chinese had refused to allow reporters on the front.

It was clear the triangular strategic balance Kissinger had sketched - Washington-Beijing-Moscow - was not going to be allowed to be wrecked by the media. The new US ally during the cold war, China, was not going to be given negative publicity for being defeated by a country which had, only a few years ago, driven out the US itself.

With each war, the technology for propaganda has been consistently refined

A huge question mark was placed on my Vietnam-victory story which otherwise was a scoop. Even my editor Sri Mulgaokar was more inclined to accept the Western media's reports rather than the one by his own reporter. It took years for global opinion to change: Vietnam had, indeed, won the 1978 war.

The western media's attitude of simply ignoring a version of a story that is not to its liking was effective largely because of considerable indigenous preferential support for the foreigner's point of view.

The birth of global media with CNN's live coverage of operation Desert Storm in 1992 was gingered up by advances in techniques of media management. Many of us in Baghdad speculated war may not take place because of America's post-Vietnam aversion to body bags on TV screens.

The Anglo-American combine took care of that. They hid the body bags from view. The monopoly of TV coverage was with CNN's Peter Arnett on the terrace of Al Rashied hotel. By the time of the Intefadas, Bosnian and Serbian wars and occupation of Iraq, BBC World Service was in full cry too.

With each war, the technology for propaganda has been consistently refined. In Afghanistan and Iraq, Al Jazeera provided an alternative perspective. Leaders of the free world bombed Al Jazeera's offices in Kabul and Baghdad, a fact Rageh Omar, the once star-reporter for the BBC, cannot ever forget. "We reported the fall of Basra 17 times, each time a lie," says Omar.

By the time of the Libyan and Syrian action, Qatar had made up with Saudi Arabia in solidarity of monarchies. So the BBC and CNN tried to minimise damage to their plummeting reputation by quoting Al Jazeera and Al Arabia's reports, that contained distortions.

Now comes the scandalous case of the satirical programme Parazit, supposedly telecast from Tehran to lampoon the regime. The programme is actually beamed from LA and is financed by the US government. Go on YouTube and you will find Hillary Clinton being interviewed on Parazit.

Indeed, as CIA chief David Petraeus says, future wars will be fought in Information-Space. Is there any space left for credible media? Everyone is catching on though, including the Wall Street protestors.

Source: The Friday Times, Lahore

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam-and-the-media/-basra-fell-17-times-/d/6044