The media’s weapons of mass deception – Middle East Monitor

Journalism is a robust weapon, which is why most tyrants and despots like both to regulate or ban the media. Even in so-called democracies, governments are nicely conscious of the ability and affect that the media can have on voters. Essential entrance pages and commentaries can win or lose elections, garner the backing of the general public and even begin wars.

The then US President George W Bush and his sidekick in London, Labour Get together chief and Prime Minister Tony Blair, knew the ability of spin and used it virtually twenty years in the past. Of their fingers, headlines and broadcasts deceived the world about non-existent weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. The media’s personal weapons of mass deception labored a deal with. Some years later, a number of main newspapers and journalists apologised for being complicit in propagating lies of their protection of the Iraq conflict.

Iraq’s Saddam Hussein was no stranger to the ability of propaganda. He knew that if he had the Iraqi media in his grip then the hearts and minds of the folks would observe. Because of this no newspaper printed in Iraq ever questioned the 100 per cent turnout of the voters who swept him again into energy in October 2002. I used to be in Iraq on the time. He was re-elected for an additional seven-year time period by a unanimous vote of all 11,445,638 eligible Iraqis on the electoral roll, eclipsing the 99.96 p.c who voted for him in 1995. Strive as I’d, I might discover nobody ready to query the end result and shortly found, escorted in all places by authorities minders as I used to be, that it was folly even to ask.

Dissenting voices and important columnists are usually not past the attain of thin-skinned tyrants who don’t take kindly to criticism. Washington Submit journalist Jamal Khashoggi paid for his important phrases along with his life in 2018 when the Saudi dissident was murdered and dismembered within the Saudi Arabian Consulate in Istanbul, apparently on the orders of petulant Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. That was the conclusion reached by US intelligence; it was ignored by Donald Trump.

It will be fascinating, subsequently, to see how the brand new Taliban authorities offers with the media in Afghanistan because it rolls out its administrative programme. I hope that it permits the native media to flourish, as a result of freedom of speech and a clear media are at all times an indication of fine governance.

READ: UK says could conduct recent airstrikes in Afghanistan

Regardless of their criticism of the Taliban, during which the dearth of freedom of speech figures prominently, the Western and different international media — together with these in India and Israel — have been deplorable of their protection of occasions unfolding in Afghanistan. Prefer it or not, the Taliban swept into energy after a crushing defeat of US, British and NATO forces. It took 20 years and the motion couldn’t have executed it with out help from bizarre Afghans. That is a truth, however you’d hardly comprehend it from the media protection..

Western media commentators are nonetheless in a state of shock, which is hardly stunning after greater than 20 years of undiluted demonisation of the Taliban. They’ve pushed out a lot disinformation, lies and propaganda, and repeated it so typically, that they’ve come to imagine it themselves.

Though typically characterised as “backward, primitive and medieval”, the Taliban has truly proven that it’s fairly able to strategic planning and coordination, with a capability to adapt to and counter something thrown at it by NATO forces. The motion’s management has realized from previous errors, and exploited the weaknesses of the US-led coalition accordingly.

I’ve watched a seemingly countless conveyor belt of Colonel Blimps on TV, sneering political commentators and defence consultants rubbishing the Taliban’s means to organise a functioning authorities. A few of these persons are residents of the identical nation which elected actuality TV host Donald Trump as its president in 2016; sufficient mentioned. Anybody else fancy government-by-Twitter? No? I assumed not.

The reality is that for greater than a decade the Taliban has set about constructing a parallel administration, growing nationwide logistics and introducing a authorized system a lot most well-liked to the corrupt courts working in main cities and cities underneath the Karzai and Ghani puppet governments. I am additionally reliably knowledgeable that the motion has a formidable intelligence community. If that is true, then the media narrative pushed by the West has most likely suited the Taliban’s functions very nicely.

Faux information wasn’t invented within the Trump period. I keep in mind when Kabul was “liberated” the primary time round and there have been TV photographs of girls burning burqas and males shaving off their beards. What the cameras failed to point out was the money supplied to those folks by dollar-rich media shops which wished to offer “comfortable” photos for the oldsters again residence. Colleagues informed me that they have been in a position to get Afghans to “carry out” for the media for $50 every, a few month’s wages over there. With {dollars} of their pockets, and scissors and burqas and a few lighter gasoline of their fingers, they fortunately gave entrance web page performances.

Enterprising Afghanis weren’t sluggish on the uptake, and plenty of false paperwork began to emerge revealing Al-Qaida’s deadliest secrets and techniques. One silly journalist parted with $500 for Osama Bin Laden’s nuclear plans, which turned out to be the contents of a physics textual content ebook. Equally modern Afghans managed to earn cash out of money wealthy reporters wanting photographs and tales to make folks again residence imagine that the US-led invasion and occupation was worthwhile.

Quick-forward 20 years, and because of social media pretend information is an industrial-scale downside. Nevertheless, this time, the roles have been reversed, with the Taliban arriving reasonably than fleeing on the outskirts of Kabul. As an alternative of hailing the motion for its comparatively peaceable takeover of the Afghan capital, we have been fed extra anti-Taliban spin with dramatic footage of a younger man utilizing black paint to cowl cosmetics commercials exhibiting totally made-up ladies on a magnificence store window. The picture went viral. I ponder how a lot he was paid to carry out for the cameras, or if it was real.

READ: Neglect propaganda and failed narratives; a brand new understanding of Afghanistan is a should

On the time of writing, I can let you know that my feminine Afghan buddies affirm that the hairdressers and sweetness outlets are nonetheless in enterprise. I also can let you know that magnificence outlets existed in upmarket areas of Kabul underneath the Taliban, the place even probably the most conservative of the motion’s leaders wouldn’t dare to return between a girl and her curling tongs.

When the 2021 Taliban took management of Kabul the media was braced for indicators of rape, looting and unruly behaviour. Is not that what conquering armies do? Did not we see it in Baghdad when US troops arrived within the Iraqi capital in 2003? Regardless of them being informed to not act like conquerors, there have been enduring photographs of troopers clambering over fallen Saddam statues waving American flags, burning and looting.

A lot to the annoyance of politicians and their compliant media, in stark distinction the Taliban behaved like mannequin schoolboys on a visit to the native museum; some members of the motion even smiled and posed for pictures as they entered the presidential palace. That did not cease a run of false photographs of girls in all-encompassing black abayas being led down Afghan streets in ankle chains with captions resembling “The Taliban has arrived”.

No politicians have been seen swinging from the gates of the presidential palace with cigars of their mouths and {dollars} stuffed of their pockets; that might have been tough since most members of the Ashraf Ghani authorities, together with the president himself, had executed a runner, allegedly taking tens of millions of {dollars} with them.

Undeterred by these early indicators of peace and stability, Western journalists roamed the streets, dressed mockingly in black abayas, claiming to listen to chants of “demise to America”. The footage I watched on one specific US channel, which I replayed a number of occasions, confirmed Taliban troopers merely shouting, “Takbir… Allahu Akbar”. To cap all of it, some playful Taliban troopers have been photographed driving dodgem vehicles in a fairground. How dare members of this evil, brutal, regime get pleasure from rides in a theme park?

Unable to file studies of gang rapes, slave markets, public stoning and hangings, the fourth property needed to be content material with scenes paying homage to Saigon 1975 as determined souls chased after an outgoing plane on the runway of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Airport. Nevertheless, a lot to journalists’ collective annoyance, I think, the airport was underneath US management on the time, and these harrowing occasions occurred on Washington’s watch.

One other journalist walked “courageously” via the streets in downtown Kabul along with his digital camera crew remarking on the conservative Islamic costume worn by folks and opined that this might be right down to the arrival of the Taliban. No mate! You are reporting from a Muslim nation and that is the cultural costume of bizarre Afghan folks. All these beforehand carrying Western costume have been most likely Westerners on their approach to the airport and a fast exit.

The liberation of Kabul from US and NATO occupation has uncovered a plethora of media lies and manipulation, and that’s the reason so many within the West are staggered by occasions in Afghanistan. The demonisation was lazy journalism by reporters posing as heroic fact tellers earlier than a gullible viewers.

The Taliban is not falling for it any longer, although. Having been the sufferer of an abusive, manipulative media for greater than 20 years, would the motion ban journalists or prohibit their work? Nicely, no, it did not. As an alternative, it held a held a press convention for its detractors and spoke about ladies’s rights, human rights, peace, reconciliation and an amnesty for its enemies. Journalists have been left reeling; US and European politicians have been outraged; and even probably the most rabid demonisers within the West have been speechless. Virtually.

US withdraws from Afghanistan, the place is that this heading to…- Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

They quickly discovered their voice and, within the absence of details, supercharged spin was unleashed throughout satellite tv for pc TV channels, radio stations and chat exhibits. The phrases of the Taliban management have been dismissed as a pack of lies and even “chilling”. Politicians who routinely lie via their again enamel, military officers and so-called consultants who spewed out hate and bile with out proof, inquiry or justification — and with greater than a contact of irony — claimed pompously: “These folks cannot be trusted.”

No marvel Afghans have been queuing thigh-deep in sewage ditches on the airport for hours on finish ready to get out of Kabul. The concern and panic was palpable. Not one of the TV commentators bothered to ask British and US politicians why the Taliban couldn’t be trusted. If that was actually the case, then why have been British and US troops being protected by the Taliban because the mass evacuation acquired underway?

I don’t deny that many Afghans had good purpose to flee. They’d labored as translators for American and NATO forces and intelligence providers, the identical forces that had brutalised, tortured and killed Afghans. Regardless of assurances by the Taliban that there could be no retribution, they feared for his or her lives, and who can blame them? Many bizarre Afghans have scores to settle over family members detained and tortured within the infamous Bagram Air Base or just forcibly disappeared.

All brutal army occupations finish ultimately — take notice Israel — and within the chaos and the vacuum left behind, revenge, pay-back and retribution are on the high of many agendas. This can be a downside that the Taliban management must grapple with.

In the meantime, it would take a military of spin medical doctors to overturn the deceit, hype, planting and concealing of proof used to demonise the Taliban over the previous 20 years and extra. There’s a complicated relationship between journalists and their sources additionally at play and fairly often these sources are primarily based inside opposition teams or people who’ve their very own agendas to discredit the motion. These journalists should attempt to maintain their sources to account, as lots of them are in self-denial.

READ: Afghan girl offers start on board Turkish Airways evacuation flight

ADVERTISEMENT

We have already had headlines about Afghan journalists being attacked by the Taliban, however whenever you look past them the story is just not so clear. The truth is, it is typically extra about males finishing up crimes whereas posing as Taliban troopers. For cash, legitimate causes or simply revenge? Who is aware of?

There may be nonetheless loads of propaganda clogging up the airwaves and our TV screens. The BBC and all of its information departments, together with the World Service and its worldwide correspondents, nonetheless push the story that the Taliban closed colleges and stopped ladies from being educated. This can be a lie however the BBC has repeated it for thus lengthy now that the broadcaster can not appropriate it with out admitting that it has misled its viewers and listeners for the previous 20 years. Different TV, radio and print media have the identical downside.

Fellow journalist Robert Carter contacted me not too long ago about the issue of what he referred to as “the West’s Taliban hysterics”. He quotes one specific commentator in his YouTube video as saying: “The Taliban have not modified. They’re nonetheless the barbaric savages they have been 20 years in the past, and if not most likely worse now as a result of they’re emboldened by absolute energy. You already know studies in Could, they bombed a faculty full of ladies in Could and killed 90 of them.”

It’s true that the Syed Al-Shahda College for Ladies within the Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood of Kabul was bombed in Could. Whereas it suited the now discredited President Ashraf Ghani accountable the Taliban, it has since emerged that it was right down to the fanatics of ISIS-Ok. The Taliban denied duty and condemned the killings within the Shia neighbourhood. The reality is that such proper wing commentators because the one quoted by Carter do not know ISIS-Ok from their elbow. So far as they’re involved, “they” are all the identical. Therefore, the perpetual lies about marauding Taliban rape gangs, intercourse markets, slaves and other people trafficking.

I am not going to call and disgrace this ignorant commentator, however she’s one in every of many. Typically folks must be protected against their very own stupidity, but when she bothers to learn this maybe I can enlighten her and different equally ignorant commentators on the place of the Taliban with regards to intercourse abuse and rape. I researched and wrote about it in my 2001 ebook Within the Palms of the Taliban.*

“The Taliban have been fashioned [in 1993] by Mullah Muhammad Omar Akhund, a non secular scholar who was 43 years outdated on the time… Omar’s unique group have been mentioned to be ‘united of their anger over the lawlessness into which the Mujahideen rule had sunk’, mentioned Asiaweek. The lawlessness referred to each day extortion at freeway tolls, the place theft and rape have been on a regular basis occurrences. In July 1994, a Kandahar army chief raped and killed three ladies, which induced outrage within the metropolis. Justice from Omar and his Taliban was swift. The chief was executed and his males supplied their providers to Omar. It was a defining second for the Taliban, which grew from energy to energy.” (Within the Palms of the Taliban, p85)

Now if that is what the Taliban did in 2001, and — as this commentator insists — “They’re nonetheless the barbaric savages they have been 20 years in the past, and if not most likely worse now…” why on earth would they promote gang rape at this time or have “marauding Taliban rape gangs”? The management at this time is as puritanical and conservative because it ever was. They have been appalled by the behaviour of ISIS-Ok and tales of ISIS rape of Yazidi ladies in Iraq, slave markets in Raqqa and the sexual abuse of girls.

I can perceive why it could appear complicated to occasional followers of Center East and Asian politics, however that is why it’s the obligation of journalists to chop via the propaganda and ship the reality. It sounds easy sufficient, however I nonetheless have not been forgiven by some former colleagues within the career for stating that my Taliban captors 20 years in the past handled me with “respect and courtesy”.

It is a unhappy undeniable fact that some journalism has been criminalised within the West. Take a look at the case of Julian Assange, writer of WikiLeaks, who’s languishing in Belmarsh excessive safety jail in London. He faces extradition to America and prison prosecution underneath the US Espionage Act. He has been charged with publishing the Afghanistan and Iraq conflict diaries and US embassy cables, necessary paperwork that many journalists around the globe have used and helped to publicise. The “Conflict Diaries” supplied proof that the US Authorities misled the general public about actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and dedicated conflict crimes.

After all, it’s nonetheless very a lot early days and we won’t decide the Taliban by their phrases alone. We have to see if their phrases are matched by their actions, so the earlier that they flip their pledges into deeds the earlier it may be reported. My hope is that the 2021 Taliban has greater ethical and moral requirements than many people right here within the West, not least the journalists and politicians amongst us.

*Yvonne Ridley is the creator of Within the Palms of the Taliban which is out there as an e book.

The views expressed on this article belong to the creator and don’t essentially replicate the editorial coverage of Center East Monitor.