6 June 2006
Arab Media Watch expresses its concern at the lack of any reporting in the Sun, the Daily Express and the Daily Star of the massacres by US Marines of Iraqi civilians in Haditha and Ishaqi. The events themselves, as well as subsequent developments, have made major headlines elsewhere in the national British media for over a week.
AMW contacted all three tabloids for a response. The only one to do so was someone who claimed (incorrectly it turns out) to be the Express news editor, saying: "Why should we tell you? It is not a forum for discussion, it is not a debating society, it is a newspaper."
Furthermore, while the Sun and Express have reported on Iraq during this period (primarily violence by Iraqis), they have failed to cover other reported abuses by coalition forces.
For instance, on 5 June the two tabloids reported civilians in Iraq being dragged off their bus and executed, a car bombing in Basra, and Iraqi police storming a mosque. The Express reported gunmen killing and wounding civilians on a minibus in Baghdad, and the Sun reported a mass grave of Saddam's regime.
On 4 June the Express reported the funeral of a British soldier killed in Iraq, and on 3 June the Sun reported the Iraqi government declaring a state of emergency in Basra, the deaths of nine UK soldiers in May, and the deaths of five Iraqis.
However, so far this month, the Sun and Express have failed to report the following:
- The US military say three Iraqi civilians have been killed, apparently by a US artillery round (5 June).
- US military prosecutors plan to file murder, kidnapping and conspiracy charges against seven marines and a Navy corpsman in the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian in April, a defence lawyer has said (3 June).
- The brother of a pregnant woman shot dead at a US checkpoint in Iraq vowed to file a complaint against US forces and expose their actions (3 June).
- An Iraqi cameraman for Reuters news agency was released after being held for 12 days by the US military. Ali al-Mashhadani, 37, was arrested at a US base in his home town of Ramadi on May 20 while trying to recover Reuters cell phones confiscated from him a week earlier, Reuters reported. It said US officials deemed the cameraman a security threat, although no allegation or charge was made against him (3 June).
- A US Army dog handler has been convicted of abusing prisoners with his dog at Iraq's Abu Ghraib jail (2 June).