8 June 2006

The Daily Express and Daily Star have responded to Arab Media Watch's press release expressing concern at the lack of any reporting in the Sun, the Express and the Star of the massacres by US Marines of Iraqi civilians in Haditha and Ishaqi, as well as other recent abuses by coalition forces.

The Star emailed AMW the following statement: "The Daily Star is about giving readers a smile with their morning newspaper. We specialise in celebrity, television, sport and fun, upbeat stories. Our readers - being the youngest and most new technology aware in the UK - will have got their hard, international political news stories from television and internet news services."

However on 7 June, the day after AMW's initial press release, the Star had a half-page article entitled "Boy, 4, kills himself making a sarnie", with the subheading "Horror as knife goes through lad's heart". On 8 June, it reported rape allegations ("I'm no rapist") and an anthrax scare in Parliament ("MPs anthrax fear"). These can hardly be described as "fun, upbeat" stories "giving readers a smile".

The 7 June edition also reported three British soldiers being cleared of killing an Iraqi boy ("Squaddies in the clear"). On 8 June, it reported "a British computer whiz kid" being "at the heart of an international al-Qaida terror network" linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "al-Qaida's top man in Iraq who mercilessly slaughtered Brit hostage Ken Bigley." These are surely "hard", political news stories with an international dimension, and further raise AMW's concerns that coalition abuses in Iraq are not getting the attention they deserve.

Express news editor Greg Swift told AMW he was not the person who responded to our request for comment on this lack of coverage by saying: "Why should we tell you? It is not a forum for discussion, it is not a debating society, it is a newspaper." As someone else at the Express wrongly claimed to be the news editor (Swift said he is the only one at the paper), AMW is not to blame for the error, but nonetheless apologises to him for any inconvenience caused, and has removed specific reference to him in the initial press release on our website.

Swift said the Express did report the Haditha massacre, but AMW has not found evidence of this in print or through LexisNexis.

The Sun is yet to provide a response to AMW's concerns, despite assuring us that one would be forthcoming.

AMW's initial press release is at:

http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/Articles/PressReleases/tabid/77/newsid391/2680/AMW-concern-at-lack-of-coverage-of-Iraq-massacres-in-Sun-Express--Star/Default.aspx