UK Special: MOD Angry But ITN Reports Were 'Fair And Accurate'

Taken from the Guardian, UK, Tuesday October 24, 2006
Leigh Holmwood

ITN executives strongly defended last week's news reports about injured British servicemen, and said the news broadcaster will not back down in the face of government criticism, a senior source said today.

The Ministry of Defence wrote to the news broadcaster yesterday accusing it of inaccurate and intrusive reporting about soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The MoD particularly singled out one report, broadcast last Monday, which it branded a "hatchet job", and said it was considering legal action over one wounded soldier's "invasion of privacy".

However, a senior ITN source has told MediaGuardian.co.uk that the news broadcaster stands by its reporting.

"The MoD raised a particular concern with our report that focused on the experience of a serving soldier with serious combat injuries sustained in Afghanistan, who had his treatment alongside civilians at Selly Oak hospital [in Birmingham]," the source said.

"But this was an issue that had already been raised as a problem by the head of the army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, and the day after our broadcast the prime minister himself said it was an issue that would be addressed. He has since announced that there will be a separate military ward opened at Selly Oak.

"We stand by our report which was fair, accurate and in the public interest." The source added that ITN had not yet replied to the MoD's letter, but that it was considering its response.

ITN has received backing from the National Union of Journalists, as well as serving and former soldiers.

The NUJ's national broadcasting organiser, Paul McLaughlin, said he was "very concerned" about the way the MoD had handled the issue, while contributors to an army internet forum, the British Army Rumour Service, said ITN was right to cover the issue.

"I just hope that ITN and ITV do not give into [the MoD]; all they have to do is look on here ... to see the support they have," one forum contributor said.

The MoD said ITN reporters had been banned from being embedded with troops until the news broadcaster "clarified" its concerns.

ITV news screened five reports in all about the treatment of British troops in its 6.30pm and 10.30pm bulletins last week.
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UK news agencies (such as ITN and BBC) are some of the most independent reporters of news in the world. It is shameful for the UK government to condemn ITN for inaccurate reporting to the public - have we forgotten how the government took the UK into a war with Iraq with false information?

Last week most people throughout the world was talking about the report of 650,000 people having died in Iraq, it now seems that (according to the Washington Post) the United Nations office in Baghdad says that Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, has ordered the country’s medical authorities to stop providing the organization with monthly figures on the number of civilians killed and wounded in the conflict there, according to a confidential cable. Who is controlling the media in this instance? Is the puppet prime minister really in control?