Al-Jazeera broadcasts "showed several dead bodies, apparently US soldiers killed in Iraq, along with five prisoners, including two woulded. 
At least five charred bodies and bloodied bodies lay sprawled in a makeshift morgue thought it was not possible to count their exact number." [Source] These broadcasts stirred considerable controversy, as news agencies grappled with whether to air the images and in what form. Al-Jazeera came under heavy criticism. [Section by Ellen Acree]
Associated Press: "Iraq Puts Captive Troops on TV": March 24, 2003
“One captured American, speaking in a shaky voice, said he had nothing against Iraqis. “They don’t bother me, I don’t bother them,” he said. Another soldier, lying wounded on a mat, swayed slightly when Iraqis tried to prop him up for the camera. All five U.S. captives appeared terrified as they were thrust in front of an Iraqi TV microphone Sunday and peppered with questions. The footage also showed at least four bodies. [...] Scenes of interrogators questioning four men and a woman were broadcast by he Arab satellite station al-Jazeera with footage from state-controlled Iraqi television. [...] Each prisoner shown on television spoke American-accented English. All looked terrified. Another prisoner, who said he was from El Paso, stared directly at the camera and spoke in a clear voice. He often shook his head and cupped his ear slightly to indicate that he couldn’t hear a question. He said: “I follow orders.” [...] Another prisoner, who said he was from Texas, was lying on an elaborate maroon mat. One of his arms appeared to be wounded and folded across his chest. Iraqi TV attempted to interview him, at one point trying to cradle his head to steady it for the camera. They eventually helped him sit up, but he seemed to sway slightly.”
[AP-USA Today]
Aly Colón: "Deciding What to Show and When": March 24, 2003
“Now that there are casualties in the war with Iraq, news organizations must decide whether or not to show images of dead U. S. soldiers. Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite station, showed footage Sunday of what Iraqis claim are the bodies of U. S. soldiers. Some news reports said it appeared the soldiers were executed. A high-ranking U. S. officer who saw the broadcast labeled the scene disgusting. Now U. S. news organizations must decide whether the public will see those images as well, and if so, how they will be handled. Unfortunately, those scenes may be only the beginning. These concerns will arise not only with U. S. casualties, but with coalition and Iraqi military and civilian casualties [...] This war complicates an already complex issue. In this case, there are concerns about the veracity of the images themselves and whether the news media is being used for propaganda purposes. And the dissemination of these images matters not only to the U. S., but to the international community. The impact becomes far more widespread.”
[Poynter]
Sydney Morning Herald: "Duty To Show World Casualties: al Jazeera": March 28, 2003
“Responding to criticism for airing footage of dead US and British soldiers, the Arab satellite television channel al-Jazeera channel said today it had a duty to show the world casualties on all sides in the Iraq war. “War has victims from both side,” said al-Jazeera’s editor in chief, Ibrahim Hilal. “If you don’t show both sides, you are not covering” the war. [...] Air Marshall Brian Burridge, the top British commander in the Gulf, told reporters today the men were probably two missing British soldiers and said the broadcast caused “distress to the families of the soldiers”. “All media outlets must be aware of the limits of taste and decency and be wary that they do not unwittingly become the tools of the Iraqi regime,” Burridge said… American networks have shown crowds of Iraqi prisoners of war, but no close-ups in which they would be identifiable and are not showing interviews with Iraqi prisoners of war as Al-Jazeera has done with US prisoners of war. Dramatic pictures of both civilian and military dead common on Al-Jazeera and other Arab channels have appeared rarely on US television stations, which have devoted much of their coverage to dusty battles, with some video provided live by embedded journalists."
[Sydney Morning Herald]
Sydney Morning Herald: "POWs Vanish Amid the Nasty War on Images": March 24, 2003
“…The Department of Defence asked that no news organisation air or publish "recognisable images or audio recordings that identify POWs" or use their names until their families were notified. But the major outlets did not even run the images with the faces obscured, as many foreign media did. It was a powerful insight into the enormous sway that the Bush Administration and the Pentagon exert over the media's war coverage. All stations that morning were in intense competition for Mr. Rumsfeld and other major figures to appear. Before the capture of the POWs, the media had little hesitation in running graphic pictures of surrendering, captured, dead or dying Iraqi soldiers, usually accompanied by US statements that large numbers of Iraqi troops were unwilling to fight for Saddam Hussein. But the censorship of the POWs highlighted starkly what is and is not acceptable news on the war.”
[Sydney Morning Herald]
NPR's "Morning Edition": Lynn Neary on Al-Jazeera: April 17, 2003
"[Al Jazeera} was founded in 1996, and has not been able to wean itself away from government support as it was supposed to do within five years of its founding. Al Jazeera's coverage touched off a controversy when it aired graphic images of dead American soldiers and POWs as well as wounded civilians.”
[NPR—RealAudio]
Hackers Knock Out Al-Jazeera's New English-language Web Site: May 27, 2003
“Within a day of its March 24 premier, amid widespread Western outrage when al-Jazeera television aired footage of dead and captured U. S. soldiers, the site was wiped out by a cyber attack. The older Arabic-language al-Jazeera site was also shut down by hackers, who replaced it with an image of a U. S. flag… Already, Joanna Tucker, the English site’s managing editor, says Yahoo and AOL have refused to run ads for the new site. For many in the West, the al-Jazeera brand name has been synonymous with anti-U. S. bias – and the recent controversy has only heightened that perception… In the wake of last week’s stir over the parent channel airing photos of POWs, a pair of al-Jazeera Wall Street correspondents had their press credentials abruptly revoked by the New York Stock Exchange.”
[Common Dreams News Center]
Sherrie Gossett: "Newssite Shut Down Over War Photos": March 25, 2003
“Late yesterday, Yellow Times was shut down by its hosting company following a controversy that began with the site ran photos of Iraqi and American war casualties. The row began Sunday, when a Yellow Times editor used his home computer to save frames from the Al-Jazeera network footage of captured American POWs. Fifteen minutes after the Al-Jazeera broadcast, the shots were posted on the Yellow Times site. According to Yellow Times, the shots of the dead American soldiers chosen by the site did not show enough to allow their identities to be discerned. The site also said it included headshots of the live POWs….The site bears the name Yellow Times to denounce what the editors cite as prevalent major media “yellow journalism,” especially “sensationalistic” and “biased” coverage of war. According to the editor, Vortech Hosting, Yellow Times’ hosting service began receiving complaints about the photos. Vortech then suspended the Yellow Times account for “inappropriate graphic content.” Vortech sent the following email to YT notifying it of the shut down: “As ‘NO’ TV station in the U. S. is allowing any dead U. S. soldiers or POWs to be displayed and we will not ether [sic]. We understand free press and all but we don’t want someone’s family member to see them on some site. It is disrespectful, tacky and disgusting. No mother, brother, sister, wife or child should see their love on plastered all over the Net wounded or dead.”
[WorldNetDaily]
Reuters: "Most News Outlets Not Showing POW Video": March 23, 2003
“Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said today it would be "unfortunate" if television networks carried pictures provided by the Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera apparently showing American dead and prisoners of war in Baghdad. American television networks indicated they were treating the Al-Jazeera footage, shot by Iraqi television, with caution, with some opting to show only a still image of the dead soldiers or only limited excerpts of the questioning of POWs… Sources at Central Command in Qatar said the U.S. had e-mailed media organizations to formally ask them not to broadcast the pictures of the U.S. dead or captured. Rumsfeld was shown a brief extract from the videotape while he was being interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation." "The Geneva Convention indicates that it's not permitted to photograph and embarrass or humiliate prisoners of war," Rumsfeld said. "And if they do happen to be American or coalition ground forces that have been captured, the Geneva Convention indicates how they should be treated." Interviewed later on CNN, Rumsfeld said, "and needless to say, television networks that carry such pictures are, I would say, doing something that's unfortunate”… Despite the controversy over showing picture of U. S. prisoners, images of Iraqi prisoners have appeared in U. S. and British media in the past days, although some had their faces deliberately blurred.”
[Houston Chronicle]
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