New W ars, New Media and New W ar Journalism

228 Pages·2014·3.4 MB·English

N
e
w

W
IN THIS BOOK, the authors discuss media coverage of major conflicts, from the Gulf War in
a
1990/91 to the NATO military operations in Libya in 2011 and the now ongoing civil war in r
s
Syria. Through in-depth analysis of Norwegian and Swedish media coverage of the Kosovo
,

conflict in 1999, the Afghanistan War from 2001, the Iraq War from 2003 as well as N
e
more recent conflicts, the authors claim that legal issues are poorly covered in the running
w
news coverage of major conflicts. Underreporting of legal issues is especially problematic

M
in relation to new forms of warfare involving extra-judicial killing by drones of targets
e
in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. While historically Sweden and Norway d
i
have had different security policy orientations, the tendency is toward the two countries a

becoming more closely oriented through Nordic defense cooperation and participation in a
n
the wars in Afghanistan and Libya.
d

N
The authors criticize mainstream media for under-communicating what security risks this e
w
support for the regime change strategies pursued by the US/NATO in the so-called ‘global

war on terror’ implies for the Nordic countries. The book further discusses the challenges W
war and conflict reporting face when confronted with major security leaks through a
r
WikiLeaks and the classified information revealed by Edward Snowden. Theoretically, the
J
findings are related to the theories of threat society, new wars and risk-transfer warfare as o
well as to Johan Galtung’s theory of war and peace journalism. Analyses are inspired by u
r
critical discourse analysis as elaborated in Norman Fairclough’s and Ruth Wodak’s works. n
a
l
i
s
m

Stig A. Nohrstedt is Professor Emeritus in Media and Communication Science at Örebro University
S
and holds a PhD in Political Science from Uppsala University, Sweden. He has published a number of t
i
books and articles on war journalism, journalism ethics and crisis communication. g

A
.
Rune Ottosen is a Political Scientist and Journalist, and Professor of Journalism at Oslo and Akershus N
University College of Applied Sciences, Norway. He has published widely on a range of topics, o
h
including Norwegian press history, the role of journalists and the media coverage of war and conflicts. r
s
t
e
d
t Professional and Legal Challenges in Conflict Reporting
&

R
u
n Stig A. Nohrstedt
e
O Rune Ottosen
t
t
o
s
e
n
University of Gothenburg
Box 713, SE 405 30 Göteborg, Sweden
Telephone [phone] (op.) | Fax [phone]
www.nordicom.gu.se | E-mail: [email protected]
Nordicom’s activities are based on broad and extensive network of contacts and collaboration
with members of the research community, media companies, politicians, regulators, teachers,
librarians, and so forth, around the world. The activities at Nordicom are characterized by three
main working areas.
• Media and Communication Research Findings in the Nordic Countries
Nordicom publishes a Nordic journal, Nordicom information, and an English language journal,
Nordicom review (refereed), as well as anthologies and other reports in both Nordic and English
languages. Different research databases concerning, among other things, scientific literature and
ongoing research are updated continuously and are available on the Internet. Nordicom has the
character of a hub of Nordic cooperation in media research. Making Nordic research in the field of
mass communication and media studies known to colleagues and others outside the region, and
weaving and supporting networks of collaboration between the Nordic research communities and
colleagues abroad are two prime facets of the Nordicom work.
The documentation services are based on work performed in national documentation centres
attached to the universities in Aarhus, Denmark; Tampere, Finland; Reykjavik, Iceland; Bergen,
Norway; and Göteborg, Sweden.
• Trends and Developments in the Media Sectors in the Nordic Countries
Nordicom compiles and collates media statistics for the whole of the Nordic region. The statistics,
together with qualified analyses, are published in the series, Nordic media Trends, and on the
homepage. Besides statistics on output and consumption, the statistics provide data on media
ownership and the structure of the industries as well as national regulatory legislation. Today, the
Nordic region constitutes a common market in the media sector, and there is a widespread need
for impartial, comparable basic data. These services are based on a Nordic network of contributing
institutions.
Nordicom gives the Nordic countries a common voice in European and international networks
and institutions that inform media and cultural policy. At the same time, Nordicom keeps Nordic
users abreast of developments in the sector outside the region, particularly developments in the
European Union and the Council of Europe.
• Research on Children, Youth and the Media Worldwide
At the request of UNESCO, Nordicom started the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth
and Media in 1997. The work of the Clearinghouse aims at increasing our knowledge of children,
youth and media and, thereby, at providing the basis for relevant decision-making, at contributing to
constructive public debate and at promoting children’s and young people’s media literacy. It is also
hoped that the work of the Clearinghouse will stimulate additional research on children, youth and
media. The Clearinghouse’s activities have as their basis a global network of 1000 or so participants
in more than 125 countries, representing not only the academia, but also, e.g., the media industries,
politics and a broad spectrum of voluntary organizations.
In yearbooks, newsletters and survey articles the Clearinghouse has an ambition to broaden
and contextualize knowledge about children, young people and media literacy. The Clearinghouse
seeks to bring together and make available insights concerning children’s and young people’s
relations with mass media from a variety of perspectives.
www.nordicom.gu.se
NEW WARS, NEW MEDIA AND NEW WAR JOURNALISM

NEW WARS, NEW MEDIA
AND NEW WAR JOURNALISM
Professional and Legal Challenges
in Conflict Reporting
Stig A. Nohrstedt & Rune Ottosen
NORDICOM
New Wars, New Media and New War Journalism
Professional and Legal Challenges in Conflict Reporting
Stig A. Nohrstedt & Rune Ottosen
© The authors and Nordicom 2014
Rune Ottosen has received financial support from the Norwegian Non-fiction
Literature Fund.
This book is published with the support of Fritt Ord (Freedom of Expression
Foundation, Oslo)
ISBN 978-91-86523-96-1
Published by:
Nordicom
University of Gothenburg
Box 713
SE 405 30 Göteborg
Sweden
Cover by: Daniel Zachrisson
Picture on front page: Caricature drawing by Riber Hansson, published 2013
in the online paper 24ae.
Printed by: Litorapid Media AB, Göteborg, Sweden, 2014
Environmental certification according to ISO 14001I
Contents
Foreword 7
1. Introduction 11
2. Targeting Journalists and Media in the New World Order 45
3. Peace Journalism as a Strategy in the Threat Society? 65
4. Brothers in Arm or Peace? The Media Images of Norwegian
and Swedish Defense and Military Co-operation 91
5. WikiLeaks. Ethical Minefield or a Democratic Revolution
in Journalism 115
6. Media and International Law. Norwegian and Swedish Press
Coverage of the Libyan War 2011 133
7. Drones and the Extrajudicial Killings in the War on Terror 165
8. Conclusions. Challenges and What to Do 181
References 205

Foreword
This is the fourth and last Nordicom book from our joint research on war
journalism that started in 1992 with the project ”Journalism in the New World
Order”. Besides the Nordicom publications our co-operation over the years
together with a network of colleagues has also been reported by the Swedish
Board of Psychological Defense (SPF) and in several journals and books. In
addition the first volume from the project was accompanied by a second vol-
ume (and a fifth book) edited by Wilhelm Kempf and Heikki Luostarinen with
the same publisher. We are grateful to Ulla Carlsson and all her colleagues at
Nordicom for fruitful co-operation during these years.
When we edited our first book in the series Journalism and the New World
Order. Gulf War, National Discourses and Globalization (2001), the summary
of the media experience from the Gulf War in 1990/91 was essential. George
Bush senior had declared ‘the New World Order’ with hope of a new dawn
after the cold war and the defeat of communism. When the book came out in
2001 we did not know that we had a decade ahead of us with new wars in the
so-called global war on terror including the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. At
that time we could not have imagined that ten year later Norway would bomb
Libya with assistance of the Swedish Air Force.
All these wars and the legislation to fight terrorism have changed the con-
ditions for war journalism in a dramatic manner. We are worried about the
working conditions for journalism and the general public’s right to information
because journalism and media installations have been targets in these wars.
The lack of respect for The Geneva Convention and the attacks on journalists’
integrity are constant reasons for worries. The war in Iraq 2003 is a blatant
case of lack of respect for international law and was a challenge for journalists
who more often than not have low competence regarding legal issues. The
underreporting of legal aspects in the mainstream media will be at the centre
of attention in the following chapters.
7
NEW WARS, NEW MEDIA AND NEW WAR JOURNALISM
While the previous books we edited had authors from around the globe,
offering comparative perspectives on the Gulf War and the wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq, this one is a monograph. The ambition with this book is to synthesize
the findings from our earlier works updated with new research on conflicts like
Libya 2011, the drone war against terrorism and new challenges for journalism
with information providers such as bloggers, WikiLeaks and dissident intel-
ligence officers. We hope this book can be useful for all those critical report-
ers fighting a battle every day to tell the truth under difficult circumstances.
We have seen in our work that despite all attempts to blur the truth through
propaganda, PSYOPS and manipulation, clever journalists can make a differ-
ence. This book is written in their honour.
The content is based on a variety of sources including previous publications
authored and edited by us. So even though a large part of the book contains
new texts, written especially for this publication, we also draw upon earlier
work written together or individually. In the introductory chapter we draw
the lines back to our first book, Journalism and the New World Order. Gulf
War, National News Discourses and Globalization in the Gulf War, published
by Nordicom, as a point of departure. The section about computer games as
war propaganda in the first chapter draws upon Ottosen’s article “Targeting
the player: Computer games as propaganda for the military-industrial com-
plex” in Nordicom Review No. 2, 2009; the section on PSYOPS operations on
Ottosen’s chapter “PSYOPS or journalism? Norwegian information warfare in
Afghanistan” in Leon Barkho’s (ed.) From Theory to Practice. How to Assess and
Apply Impartiality in News and Current Affairs (2013). The second chapter is
an updated version of an jointly authored article in Eric Wilson (ed.) The Dual
State Parapolitics: Carl Schmitt and the National Security Complex (2012). The
third chapter is an updated version of “War Journalism in the threat society:
Peace journalism as a strategy for challenging the mediated culture of fear”
by both authors in Conflict and Communication Online vol. 7 no. 2., 2008.
Chapter four has also partly been published as “Brothers in arms or peace? The
media images of Swedish and Norwegian defence and military”, a jointly writ-
ten article in Conflict and Communication Online vol. 9, No. 2, 2010. Chapter
five is an updated version of “Wikileaks: Ethical minefield or a democratic
revolution in journalism: Case study of the impact of the Afghanistan coverage
in the Norwegian Daily Aftenposten” by Ottosen in Journalism Studies vol 13
(2) 2012. The chapter about Libya draws partly upon the article “How they
missed the big story: Norwegian news media and NATO’s military operations
in Libya” by Ottosen together with co-authors Tore Slaatta and Sigurd Øfsti in
Conflict and Communication Online vol 12 no 1, 2013. The seventh chapter
draws partly on Ottosen’s “Under-reporting legal aspects of use of drones in
international conflicts: A case study of Aftenposten and the New York Times”,
published in Conflict and Communication Online vol 13. no. 2, and “How the
8