Embedded media in Iraq: More access, less information.

After having seen so many images and information about the Iraq War, after seeing so many journalists informing while they wore the North American military uniform our task as audience it is asking ourselves how those events have been reported. Could the general public have a real idea of what was really happening with the information reported during those War conflicts?

Our daily news about War have been influenced by the Western media approach painting and creating an American dominant picture of the Iraq War during all the conflict. Even it has been some media exceptions where journalists treated the information using more sources in a more critical approach, generally War news were covered by journalists which were protected by the American Army becoming what nowadays it is known as: Embedded journalism.

Rarely, embedding occurred as a consequence of the journalist´s demand. During the Gulf War, American correspondents complained because they didn’t have a good access to the battlefield. The Pentagon realized that having journalists as witnesses of the war with the limited and close perspective of the American Army was good for the War public opinion. In the next War, in Iraq March 2003, the journalists had access to most of the battlefield action but they were also part of the command of an implicated part of the conflict. As the Irish journalist Patrick Cockburn explains: “The very fact of being with an occupying Army means that the journalist is confined to a small and atypical segment of the political-military battlefield”, the journalist and columnist Scott Hills also ratifies: “Embedding comes at a price. We are observing these wars from just one perspective, not seeing them whole.” Embedded journalism fosters one-sided position, accurate journalism is forgotten and journalists, as Edward Herman sort out: “normalize the unthinkable” during War times.

Thankfully, apart from the embedded journalism majority, we also have a minority of journalists willing to risk their life in order to present to the public audience the other side of the facts. As we could see in some specific cases as the vivid documentary of the Journalist Ghait Abdul-Ahad called “Baghdad, city of walls”, describing the Iraqi Civil War, another story of the War can be told. However at the same time, on the other hand, we have the other face of the coin, a kind of journalism who is based only in one side of the arguments, as we could see in the War report “Embbeded in Iraq” written by Gavin Hewitt, a BBC correspondent in Iraq.

As the journalist from the Washington Post David Ignatius explains while he was an embedded journalist in Iraq he learnt two things: “First, it is too dangerous, in most cases, to cover modern warfare without protection from an Army. Second, although my visits were brief, I was able to see things that the embedded journalists could not.” Sometimes to cover the action they don’t have more alternatives than to embed. As we saw in Embedded in Iraq´s report, with quotes such as “The commander, General Buford Blount, wanted TV coverage so he agreed that a few networks could bring their own vehicle to carry equipment.” in embedded Journalism  exists the risk of that the close relation created between the Army and the Journalist become as close that finally they became part of the same cause and the same “fight”, making difficult to distinguish between the journalist and the Army tasks.

Another danger of embedding is that “it puts journalists in the wrong place at the wrong time” as Patrick Cockburn explains. The embedded journalist only covers and sees one part of the conflict which normally is not representative of the battlefield as a whole. While in the documentary of Ghait Abdul-Ahad called  Baghdad, city of walls, it is accounted for and contextualized the Iraqi perspective in the War: “He know the names of his son killers but he doesn´t know how to bring them to justice”, speaking about the death of an Iraqi son, the embedded journalist Gavin Hewitt in Embedded in Iraq cannot explain or justify the Iraqi perspective during the War: “This was liberation day, bright shining but strangely incomplete. There was celebration but also silence; the silent stare of half the population.” Making reference to the day in which Saddam´s statue fell and the war declared over.

There is also another risk in embedded Journalism: “it leads reporters to see the Iraqi and Afghan conflicts primarily in military terms” not focusing on humanitarian and complex aspects which could make easier the understanding of the War. “There were brief fire-fights and a few Iraqis emerged with hands held high. None of them wore uniform” said Gavin Hewitt the BBC reporter. While in the report Embedded in Iraq the journalist describes the War giving the impression that the conflicts in Iraq can be resolved by force, in the documentary of Ghait Abdul-Ahad the War is described with the previous contextualization and explanations: “Everyone who has lost his life in Iraq is called a martyr. We use the term to show respect to the death not because this martyrs are bombers, most often they are ordinary Iraqis.”

Embedded Journalism oversimplified reality: Good Vs. Evil. As Amira Hass, an Israeli journalist stresses: "What journalism is really about is to monitor power and centers of power." Reporting about War without the Government support is extremely dangerous but, at the same time, embedding distorts the accurate information that communication media should provide. Media coverage shapes the audience perception of a country, having a big influence on the cost and duration of the involvement of a country in a conflict. The fact of being protected by an Army finally means that the journalist is biased by a small and segment of the political and military battlefield.  Journalist should remember again the importance of accurate information, even putting under risk their lives if necessary, with the clear purpose of acting as the repressors of cruelties, as independent journalists serving the public interest and restricting the Government´s control.