Dir.
Jehane Noujaim, 2004, USA, 84 mins, subtitles
Cast:
Samir Khader, Lt John Rushing, Hassan Ibrahim, Deema Khatib, Tom Mintier, David Shuster
The 2003 war in Iraq was not just a military campaign but also a battle for the hearts and minds of media audiences all over the world. With 40 million Arab viewers, the Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera was perhaps the best example of the ferocity of the media war and quickly became a thorn on the side of the American-led coalition. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld routinely accused the channel of lying and went as far to say that Al-Jazeera staff planted dead and wounded women and children in bombed locations to provide proof that the Coalition was killing civilians.
In the riveting Control Room, Arab American director Jehane Noujaim follows Al-Jazeera staff as they go about their business throughout the war. Senior producer Samir Khader laughs at the Bush administration's accusations that Jazeera is "the mouthpiece of Osama Bin Laden". He's clear about the priorities of Coalition leaders: they'll try to discredit anyone who doesn't agree with their version of events. For Khader, the images of blood-splattered pavements, dead and wounded civilians in a bombed building or in hospital, and American soldiers shoving and yelling at Iraqi detainees are "the only true journalism" - a fresh look at the reality ignored by embedded correspondents and official communiqués. Weary Jazeera staff point out the hypocrisy of their channel being accused of sensationalism whilst western media consistently failed to question misinformation fed by Coalition leaders in order to justify the war, such as the rumours that Saddam Hussein was willing and able to pass on weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against the US.
After going through the shock of the beginning of the war and the bombing of Baghdad, Al-Jazeera staff move into the Coalition's Central Command (CentCom), which doubled as press headquarters for the duration of the campaign. There, Arab and western journalists worked close together with Coalition representatives and Noujaim's camera captures some fascinating exchanges. Donald Rumsfeld keeps at it tirelessly and complains that Al-Jazeera is breaking the Geneva Conventions by showing dead and captured US soldiers. Jazeera journalists sound almost amused: where are the Geneva Conventions for the Guantanamo detainees?
As Coalition forces approach Baghdad the stakes in the media war rise. The Americans bitterly attack Al-Jazeera for showing the human cost of the war in the form of civilian casualties (which look nothing like a plant). The channel's staff complain that the Coalition withholds information at critical moments, like the exact timing and whereabouts of US Army units which are supposed to be entering Baghdad. One of the most shocking moments in the film comes with the death of Jazeera reporter Tarek Ayyub when US warplanes bombed the channel's offices in Baghdad on 8 April 2003. On the same day the offices of Abu Dhabi TV and the Palestine Hotel, which housed most non-embedded journalists in Baghdad, were also hit by US forces and two more journalists, Jose Couso and Taras Protsyuk, lost their lives. Coalition forces claimed that the attacks were "mistakes" and/or that they had come under fire from the attacked locations, but witnesses contradict this version. Samir Khader and Jazeera staff are under no illusions: the attacks were a punishment and a warning to independent journalists from the American military. The Coalition never accepted responsibility for Tarek Ayyub's death. Their standard line was that "The battlefield is a dangerous place" and journalists, if anything, should be safely embedded with Coalition forces.
Jazeera staff's frustration with western media coverage doesn't end with the fall of Baghdad. They can tell from archive footage that the toppling of Saddam's statue on Firdos Square, rather than being "spontaneous", as widely reported in the UK and the US, was heavily staged. They gape at the official US Army line when the Saddam regime collapsed and Baghdad descended into chaos and looting. The Coalition was not occupying Baghdad, representatives said. Iraqis were responsible for the looting and they, not Coalition forces, should stop it. How exactly that should happen when the government had just collapsed was never explained.
It's shocking to realise that the intensity of these moments in the media war over Iraq is now all but forgotten, but the shrewd Samir Khader is not surprised. Human beings have short memories, as he puts it, and at the end of a war only one thing matters. "People like victory", he says with his wry smile. "Once you're victorious you don't have to justify anything". Quite so, if the true meaning of 'victory' in Iraq is yet to become clear. In the meantime, Control Room goes some way towards refreshing our memories.
Miguel Sopena
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