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> It seems that a lot of academics read these discussions so I would > like to put a question to them. How, in a democracy, were the > Western media able to ensure that, between August 1990 and January > 1998, the issue of sanctions was basically "censored" so that the > public had no knowledge of it? As Chomsky might say, it was an act > of deception which would "be difficult to replicate in a > totalitarian state." Having lived for two years under a military dictatorship the biggest difference I noticed was that people did not trust the media at all and had acquired a knack for reading between the lines. Here in the UK it is possible to pick up things about sanctions from the written media. The problem is that most people rely on TV News. The BBC in particular has a very poor record of reporting on Iraq and sanctions. The biggest fault is keeping quiet eg no reporting when Halliday and von Sponeck resigned or UNICEF presented their report or the UNSG reports on the failings of sanctions. Then there is the bias on sources - Government press releases quoted as if fact, all Iraqi quotes treated as dubious. Then there are outright lies and misrepresentations eg on the night of the bombing (Feb 17th 2001) the BBC 10pm News referred to the "... two UN declared no fly zones". Mark Parkinson Bodmin Cornwall -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq For removal from list, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk Full details of CASI's various lists can be found on the CASI website: http://www.casi.org.uk