Afghanistan: Propaganda and Censorship
What are you holding Kate?
Before we get to the serious bit, what is Kate holding?
So instead of getting proper reports from someone being embedded with our Forces we are to get newsreader Kate Silverton telling us about her travels to and from Afghanistan.
Contrast this with the type of reports we get from Afghanistan from the likes of Michael Yon such as this on the work of the “Pedros”.
As Michael said in a recent tweet
Hogwash: Bob Ainsworth on my recent problems with MoD: http://bit.ly/12HkwA
The link above refers to this question asked in the House of Commons:
Ann Winterton (Congleton, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reasons the journalist Michael Yon is no longer embedded with British armed forces in Afghanistan.
Bob Ainsworth (Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)
Opportunities to embed with Task Force Helmand are in high demand from across the media—national, regional, print, broadcast, specialist and new media. It is not possible to meet all requests and slots must be time-limited to ensure that the opportunities are shared as widely as possible. A normal embed for a national news organisation will last on average around two to three weeks, including time for travel.
Michael Yon had been embedded with British forces on a number of occasions before his recent visit—twice in Iraq in 2007, and once in Afghanistan in 2008. His latest embed had been scheduled to last for two weeks but it was extended to take account of delays to his arrival.
In all, his stay was extended twice and he was embedded for five weeks—much longer than is normally the case, and longer than had been agreed with him before he went. He was facilitated by British forces in a number of locations and given a high level of access both to the operations and to our personnel. At the end of this five-week period Task Force Helmand ended his embed as they were no longer able to support it given their other commitments, including other media visits.
This is Censorship and Propaganda all rolled into one. Until we spell out the true story of what is on-going in Afghanistan, we cannot hope to get the public behind our war on the Taliban.
Helmand Blog – Afghanistan: BBC newsreader Kate Silverton makes a journey to the Afghan frontline.
