Censorship in Broadcast Media essays

Censorship in Broadcast Media essays POW Pictures/Images in Al-Jazeera TV: Propaganda or Journalism' On March 21, 2003, the United States administration led by George W. Bush declared war against Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein, an event that was termed "Gulf War II." After disregarding the UN decision and public opinion not to go forward an offensive attack against Iraq, US proceeded to declare war and attack on Iraq, resulting to massive bombings of important establishments and infrastructure in Iraq, wounding numerous innocent civilians. The "shock and awe" offensive attack plan of the US did not only produce casualties among Iraqis, but also caused the deaths of US and British soldiers in the Middle Eastern nation. Despite these facts, little is known about the real situation of the war in Iraq. In fact, what is predominantly shown on TV are images of establishments and houses being bombed in Iraq, and wounded or dead Iraqi soldiers of Saddam Hussein's. Images of the casualties of war on US's side is shown sparingly, if shown at all, to the American people in the US. Three days after the shock and awe attack of the US, images of American and British soldiers held as prisoners-of-war (POWs) by Iraq were shown on Al- Jazeera TV, one of the biggest broadcast nations in Iraq. The pictures include images of five American soldiers, number of capture British soldiers unknown, and images of dead US and British soldiers. These pictures were not shown in broadcast stations in the US, and print media has shown one to two pictures of the POWs, but never the whole pictures featured in Al-Jazeera TV. Online publications, however, published these images from Al-Jazeera, and posted commentary about the prevalent censorship of the US administration on its media institutions not to publish any material that is considered "unpatriotic," or whose content convey negative impressions about the war, particularly that...