Iraq War Censorship Out of Control

The Iraq war has been met with fierce censorship from United States army officials keen to see the real story kept away from the U.S public.

Central to this has been the story of freelance journalist Zoriah Millar, who was barred from covering the marines after releasing photos of a suicide attack on U.S. marines on June 26.

Millar's decision to post the photos on his website resulted in him being forbidden from working in the marine controlled areas of the country. The United States Marine commander in Iraq, however, is still trying to have Millar formally banned from United States military facilities throughout the world.

Even the New York Times were forced to admit that media coverage of Iraq is turning out to be the "opposite extreme" of the Vietnam War, which is often descibed as the "television war".

We should not underestimate our need for quality and reliable information to make the right decisions and the importance of Millar's photos are only fragment of what we should be expecting before allowing our troops to say in Iraq one moment longer.

An interesting point to remember in a time when the worlds eyes are on China and assessing their censorship, while conveniently forgetting our own.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/26/world/middleeast/26censor.html?_r=1&oref=slogin