MEDIA VIEW: A fierce battle took place throughout last week in the British press over the controversial prisoner abuse photographs printed by the Daily Mirror. The newspaper conceded last Friday evening they were a hoax, resulting in the resignation of editor Piers Morgan.
When the British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon started to pour cold water on their authenticity at the start of the week, newspapers were quick with their editorial opinions. "Whereas the case against the US soldiers is corroborated by a mass of photographic testimony, we have only the pictures that appeared in the Daily Mirror. And hardly anyone, apart from the editor of the Mirror, still believes those images to be authentic," wrote the Daily Telegraph. The Sun added: "The Daily Mirror's so-called 'torture' pictures of British troops abusing Iraqi prisoners are fake . . . The servicemen and women deserve an immediate apology from the Mirror and all those who have peddled lies, unfounded allegations and fake photographs for their own political agenda."
By the time the defence minister Adam Ingram told the House of Commons that the pictures were almost certainly fake even the Guardian - broadly sympathetic to Morgan's anti-war stance - said he had questions to answer. "If the pictures are fakes - as now seems likely - it is important that Mr Morgan acknowledges that fact loudly and clearly. Any equivocation on his part would send dangerous messages to those insurgents in Iraq who need little excuse to exact murderous revenge on British and American troops and contractors."
But the Mirror even on Friday morning was remaining defiant. "The Mirror's pictures of a prisoner being beaten were 'categorically not taken in Iraq,' said Mr Ingram. What evidence did he produce to substantiate that? Not a shred. And none will be because it is confidential, he added."
The statement on Tuesday by the International Olympic Committee that Greece would be ready for this summer's Games caused Kathimerini to attribute the turn-around to the change of government this year. All areas of government had seen changes since New Democracy came to power, the newspaper wrote. "\ ascendance to power has ushered in a radical change in mentality and the work ethic. It is indicative that Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis has made far fewer public appearances in the couple of months than his predecessor had over the same period. The conservative premier spends less time in public hooplas which do nothing to promote government work."
While broadly celebrating the success in the Indian elections of the Congress party and its leader Sonia Gandhi over the Hindu nationalist party BJP, author Arundhati Roy, writing in the Guardian, said terrorism has been used over the years by many governments - including Congress - to manufacture "frenzy to mount an assault on human rights on a scale that would shame the world's despotic regimes". She wrote that while Congress in opposition had opposed the passing of the Prevention of Terrorism Act - which she says is used to quell criticism and public protests - it has not made its repeal part of their manifesto. But she ends: "Hopefully things will change. A little. It's been a pretty hellish six years."
The Italian press was pleased at the electoral success of one of their countrywomen in the world's biggest democracy. Former centre-left cabinet minister, Giovanna Melandri, writing in L'Unità, said "Sonia Ghandi has triumphed. First of all, she has won a personal victory over the prejudices of those who termed her a foreigner . . . from today on, we will look to India with the heartfelt hope that it will be a woman to lead the country down the path of peace and hope".
Il Messaggero wrote : "For many commentators, the Congress party's decision to turn to her, a 'foreigner', in 1998 was an explicit condemnation of the party's failure to renew itself. When Sonia Ghandi called on party followers to roll up their sleeves, some commentators suggested that she did not realise that the Congress Party had already had its arms cut off. Yet, despite all of that, the Congress and opposition leader, a woman born 57 years ago in Orbassano (Piedmont), has come out of the elections as the winner.
"The thing that matters now, however, is that the world's second biggest country and biggest democracy abandons a nationalist attitude, dangerously fanned by aggressive Hindu fundamentalism, in order to return to its secular origins".
Judith Crosbie