Saddam court coverage was ’shambolic’

Saddam coverage: ’just the way things are done here at
the moment’

Claire Cozens, press and publishing correspondent

The world’s media descended on Baghdad this week to
witness the historic court appearance of the former
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. But for journalists
covering the hearing it was an exercise in enormous
frustration, with only a handful of media organisations
allowed in to the court room.

Broadcasters and press alike were furious with the
arrangements, which left print journalists struggling
to obtain any information on the day that one of the
most hated men in the world was finally brought to
court.

"We were told the night before what the arrangements
would be - but by the morning of the hearing they had
changed completely," said a staff member of one
international broadcaster. "It’s been a bit of a
shambles, no one had a clue what was going on."

CNN and the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera were the only
two TV stations to be allowed into the court room,
while only one print journalist - the New York Times’
chief foreign correspondent John Burns - was given
access. Although CNN made its footage available to
other broadcasters, it was yesterday insisting its star
reporter Christiane Amanpour was there in a
"unilateral" capacity after she was granted access by
the director of the Iraqi special tribunal, Salem
Chalabi, and her reports were branded exclusive. Mr
Chalabi’s involvement in the trial - which was expected
to take two years to come to court - is already
undermining the credibility of the proceedings. He is
the nephew of Ahmed Chalabi, one of Saddam’s most
vociferous opponents and the man America once backed as
would-be leader of Iraq, now accused of treachery
against the US and of peddling disinformation about
non-existent weapons of mass destruction.

Last night the BBC’s John Simpson had to make do with
interviewing an American journalist - ABC anchor Peter
Jennings - who had gained access to the court after
making the same "unilateral" request to the Americans
running proceedings.

Print journalists fared even worse, forced to rely on
soundless TV images of the proceedings, together with
the testimony of an Arabic-speaking CNN producer who
had been in court but had not been warned he would be
the sole witness of events in the courtroom.

In a televised briefing to journalists, the producer
admitted his notes had been intended for his own use
and for background colour.

The Guardian’s Baghdad correspondent Rory McCarthy
described the process as a "shambolic".

"With no audio it was impossible," he said. "The
arrangements for the handover were the same - that’s
just the way things are done here at the moment." No
audio recording of the proceedings was available,
although Burns provided a short tape recording in which
he described the appearance of the court before the
hearing began, but only a single quote from Saddam - "I
am Saddam Hussein, president of Iraq".

At 8.30pm local time, Burns finally gave a briefing to
the gathered press - too late for British newspaper
deadlines.

But no local media organisations were present, and the
only Iraqi journalist there was asked to leave before
the proceedings began fully.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1252732,00.html