THE INDIGENOUS PUBLIC SPHERE DR DAVID ROBIE is an associate professor in Auckland University of Technology’s School of Communication Studies. ‘Embedded’ with the invaded Iraqi people Long Drive Through a Short War: Reporting on the Iraq War, by Peter Wilson, 2004. Melbourne: Hardie Grant Books. 294 pp. ISBN 1 74066 143 5. Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, by Seymour M. land’s handful of television reporters Hersh, 2004. London: Allen Lane (Pen- covered the war from the safety of the guin). 394 pp. ISBN 0 7139 9849 0. rear or were embedded. According to the Paris-based glo- bal media watchdog, Reporters Sans EW journalists from this part of Frontières, Coalition forces displayed Fthe world chose to report the 2003 ‘contempt’ for unilaterals. Many jour- invasion of Iraq as ‘unilaterals’ – nalists came under fire, others were those who reported from outside the detained and questioned for several cosy security of the ‘embedded’ re- hours or days and some were mis- porters were attached to the Coalition treated, beaten and humiliated by military. Only one unilateral was from Coalition forces. New Zealand: Jon Stephenson, who Of the 14 journalists who died provided at great personal risk some while the embedded system was in invaluable independent insights for full force – from the start of the war the Sunday Star-Times. New Zea- on March 20 until the fall of 220 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 11 (1) 2005 THE INDIGENOUS PUBLIC SPHERE Saddam’s statue on April 9 – only four to him being named the 2003 Aus- of the casualties were embedded, tralian Journalist of the Year and his even though the 700 or so embeds experiences and independent view greatly outnumbered their unilateral provide plenty of depth for this book. colleagues in Iraq. Wilson was struck by the willing- And 16 of the 21 media workers ness of American soldiers to express killed by the end of 2003 were their personal views about their op- unilaterals. Only five were embeds. erations, a striking contrast to most The Australian’s European corre- Australian soldiers’ (and New Zea- spondent, Peter Wilson, his Canberra- landers in similar situations?) reluc- based photographer, John Feder, and tance to say almost anything for fear part British, part-Lebanese ‘fixer’ of punishment. Stewart Innes were remarkably placed unilaterals for the duration of This American openness has a sim- the war. They entered the south of ple logic – when US soldiers are Iraq in the wake of the invading Coa- asked to fight and die for their coun- lition forces, were arrested for visa try’s values, high among those val- violations (facing seven years of im- ues are their democratic rights and free speech (p. 180). prisonment, they were told) while in- terviewing civilians in Basra before Wilson found that ‘while the Austral- British forces seized the city, spirited ians were generally scared to talk on under guard to Baghdad, held under the record, five minutes with an ‘house arrest’ in the Palestine Hotel American would almost always yield and finally covered the implosion of some pretty strong opinions’. Saddam Hussein’s 24-year regime. Particularly interesting is the di- Of the hundreds of foreign jour- lemma faced by Wilson about decid- nalists covering the war in Iraq, only ing whether to enter Basra while Brit- Wilson managed to report both the ish troops were still besieging the invasion of southern Iraq and the fall country’s second city, especially in of Baghdad. the wake of the death of ITN’s Terry Wilson’s Long Drive Through A Lloyd immediately after the start of Short War is a personal account of the invasion. their time in Iraq during the invasion and a subsequent post-war visit to the I was happy to go, figuring that if the country to see the fate of the people snipers and mortar were under con- he had met. His evocative reports led trol the biggest danger was being ar- PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 11 (1) 2005 221 THE INDIGENOUS PUBLIC SPHERE rested by Iraqi soldiers or police, and that fateful decision to go to their there was no reason to believe they deaths in Balibo. would harm us. In any event, Wilson, Feder and Coalition troops had already shot up Innes jointly decided to enter Basra Terry Lloyd’s ITN vehicles and for a quick talk to Iraqis and get some would later kill several more report- ers but there had not been a single photos to capture the atmosphere in report of the Iraqis doing so (p. 78). the beleagured city. A few hundred metres inside Basra, they talked to a Wilson didn’t want to ‘bully’ the trio grain silo worker who lived with his into entering Basra. It needed to be a wife, their five sons, three of their collective decision. High in his wives and two grandchildren in one thoughts was the experience of a house. They were preparing to leave three-man Channel Seven crew killed their home because of the intermit- by Indonesian troops in East Timor tent bombing. in 1975. He had taken a close inter- est in their deaths because of his This was the first proper interview friendship with the family of Tony conducted by the Western media in Stewart, the crew’s 19-year-old Basra during the war, and it was the oddest interview in my 24 years of soundman. journalism. Wilson researched the tragedy in With their city being attacked by the 1980s while writing a thesis on Coalition troops the last thing these the history of Australian journalists men expected was to be approached in Indonesia. in the street by an ‘enemy’ news team and asked how they felt about it all The Seven trio were killed after en- (p. 81). tering the town of Balibo, in the path of Indonesia’s invasion force, and Feder had just completed the last of witnessing an advance that Indone- his photographs after interviewing the sia claimed was not happening. group when they were seized by two An East Timorese witness who had carloads of special police. tried to talk them out of driving to Balibo told me later that reporter Having a translator … had allowed Greg Shackleton had been the keen- us to stop for a real interview but that est to take the risk (p. 79). had made us a stationary target … We had stayed still just long enough for Wilson says that he often wondered word of our presence to be reported about the group dynamics in making and acted on (p. 82). 222 PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 11 (1) 2005 THE INDIGENOUS PUBLIC SPHERE It didn’t take long to figure out that hamlet Zafaraniya and the reporter’s they had been arrested by a group in- own crucial involvement. Ali Ismail cluding members of the notorious Abbas was now the ‘provider’ for his Fedayeen Saddam, the secret militia. six surviving sisters and fighting for But they were probably saved by the his life against infection from his third fact that they had been handed over degree burns. to regular authorities in the local of- Ali’s plight became a tragic icon fice of the Ba’ath Party. for the civilian cost of the war. Brit- Ironically, the trio were kept pris- ish journalists tried to stake out his oner that night in the 198-room Shera- hospital room for exclusive stories ton Hotel, empty except for the four- while Wilson quietly got on with the man al-Jazeera TV crew. And the job of arranging his evacuation to a manager charged Wilson US$107 specialist burns hospital in Kuwait. cash for the night (room only). The description of the scene They were kept under guard with when Ali is taken by stretcher from Wilson being forced to pay for the Saddam City Hospital to an ambu- captors’ meals. Their satellite phones, lance waiting to take him to the mili- cameras, flakjackets and other gear tary helicopter evokes ghoulish im- had been seized. ages of journalistic vultures hovering The following day, the captive in the hope of taking some media news team were taken on a breakneck credit (pp. 216-229). Appalling. dash to Baghdad, running the gaunt- In Wilson’s return to Iraq in Oc- let through two battles. They were tober 2003 to visit the people he had taken to the Palestine Hotel where reported on during the invasion, he most Western journalists were based was pleased to see the dramatic while their minders awaited deci- progress made by Ali. sions. Even four weeks after his evacu- In the chaotic last days of the ation, Ali had already begun to use Saddam regime, Wilson resumed re- his feet like his hands. With his toes, porting and Feder borrowed cameras he could take off elastic socks, hand to cover the fall of Baghdad. up his own T-shirt, and write and Perhaps the most poignant chap- draw. And the UK Limbless Asso- ter is ‘Ali’s evacuation’ where Wilson ciation was helping in his rehabilita- tells the harrowing story of a 12-year- tion. old boy who lost both parents and Wilson’s book is an intriguing both arms in Coalition bombing of his and evocative account of the realities PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW 11 (1) 2005 223 THE INDIGENOUS PUBLIC SPHERE of life for a frontline reporter, and Feder’s excellent photos enhance its value as a record of the invasion. But the book is less satisfying when attempting to analyse the big picture. Wilson is perhaps too will- ing to accept the US rationale – hence his reluctance to report that it was the Americans who shelled the Palestine Hotel – and his prognosis for the fu- ture far too rosy.