Arab Media Doesn't Hide Violence Of War

by Cam McGrath

Arab newspapers splash their front pages with colour images of crushed babies, bloodied wounds and mangled corpses. Television channels broadcast footage of armless children in hospital beds, mothers weeping over their dead babies and on one occasion a grisly close-up of a child's head imploded by a bullet.

The horrific images cascade relentlessly into Arab living rooms, fuelling anger with the U.S. and Britain. While Western media focuses on military hardware, Arab media highlights the victims. Body bags are opened for the camera and stumps of amputated limbs held aloft.

"When I see those babies killed by American bombs I tell myself that I should go to Iraq and fight these aggressors ... these murderers," says Egyptian taxi driver Mamdouh Hussein.

Western journalists accuse the Arab media of sensationalising the war in Iraq and saturating newspapers and television screens with "blood-and-guts." Many question this focus on violence.

"But Arabs don't have violence in them at all," says sociologist Madiha El-Safty. "This is the American stereotype."

Many Arabs say they despise Saddam Hussein, but are angered by Washington's decision to wage war on Baghdad. El-Safty argues that the idea behind the graphic images is to put the human cost of war ahead of its political agenda.

"The idea is a reflection of this anger underlined a thousand times," says El-Safty. "It's to show how awful this war really is and to emphasise its horrors."

Images of this kind are nothing new. Video footage of Palestinians "martyred" resisting Israeli occupation have appeared on Arab television screens for years.

The latest pictures of Iraqi civilian casualties carry political overtones, seeking to equate the U.S.-led invasion with a broader attempt by Washington to dominate the Arab world. In depicting U.S. troops as callous killers who target civilians and have no concern for the suffering of the Iraqi people, the Arab press reflects the general sentiment of the Arab street.

This impression seemed to persist despite television pictures showing celebrations by people in Baghdad and some other cities.

"The Americans are not liberating Iraq, they are occupying it," says Syrian merchant Ali Bashir. "All those women, children and elderly people are paying for this war, this stupid war, with their blood."

Many believe that U.S. and British troops are either targeting civilians, or not taking enough measures to protect them. This week's shelling of a hotel where media personnel were staying, and the bombing of the Al-Jazeera satellite network and Abu Dhabi TV offices has cemented this view. Three journalists were killed and at least five were injured in the incidents, which U.S. officials denied were deliberate acts.

The media reflects also Arab anger that their governments are doing little to stop the suffering. The U.S.-led invasion would not have been possible if Arab countries had refused permission to U.S. and British troops to use their territory and airspace for the military strikes, they say.

"Arab rulers silent while Iraqi children slaughtered!" screams the independent Egyptian weekly El-Khamis.

The tabloid's front page presents a montage of Iraqi civilian casualties said to be victims of U.S. shelling. An open wooden casket is shown holding a dead mother and child, the baby's pacifier still in its mouth. Pictures of the corpses of five other children are superimposed, one with brain matter spilling out of a gaping head wound.

"El-Khamis is a sensational newspaper and deals with the issue emotionally," says Mahmoud Alam El-Din, vice-chairman of the Information Research Centre at Cairo University. "Other newspapers handle the issue differently."

Many Arabic publications are state-owned and almost all are subject to government censorship, but Alam El-Din says editors exercise a great deal of freedom in managing their content.

"Arabs reject this war and the media shows this," he says. "This is not propaganda. All media coverage is directed by the editorial policies of the newspaper or station."

The government-run Al-Akhbar in Egypt carries a daily page of pictures of civilian casualties, and plasters the most shocking ones on the cover. The independent Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily, takes a more balanced approach. It publishes pictures from Western and Arab sources side by side, and generally avoids gory pictures unless related to a major story, such as the shelling of a Baghdad market.

Washington has criticised Arab newspapers for carrying what it calls inflammatory pictures, and accused Al-Jazeera of fanning the flames with its heart-wrenching video footage of wounded and dead civilians.

Arabs in turn criticize Western media for failing to address the human face of war. They argue that Western media is sanitised, shielding audiences from the stark realities. "Americans want to sleep with a clean conscience," says Mohammed, a fruit seller in Cairo.