Session on

Media Wrongs Against Truth and Humanity
Exposing the Politics of Disinformation

Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal
Article 6.

[…] Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes [crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity] are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan.

1. What We Know: On the War, Media and Disinformation

The case for war against Iraq was made by the governments of the so-called Coalition, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, under various guises. Against the overwhelming opposition of the membership of the United Nations, and the unprecedented uprising of peoples’ anti-war movements globally, it was asserted that what was being undertaken was a noble violence for the common good, and more particularly for the good of the Iraqi peoples. The same message of good against evil was repeated throughout the subsequent Occupation of Iraq, and is still being repeated now as the process of political transition stumbles along. At stake are the ‘authority’ and the ‘legitimacy’ of military-political action – of War, Occupation, and ‘Assistance’.

Increasingly, there are revelations about the lies, falsifications, disinformation, misrepresentations and silences, upon which was based the call to war against Iraq, accompanied the brutality of occupation, and directed the politics of ‘transition’. It is commonplace now to hear of outrage regarding the truths of War and Occupation that are belatedly being acknowledged. Much of the ‘mainstream’, corporate-controlled Media stands implicated, for these truths were not previously unknown. To some extent, it seems, the Media are willing to admit their ineptitudes - the New York Times, for example, has ‘apologised’ to its readers for its admitted inadequacies of investigation and truth-telling in the run-up to war in Iraq. However, although this is welcome, it is not sufficient.

More than a simple recognition of professional failings is required. The World Tribunal on Iraq calls for a people’s judgement. Towards this end, the WTI resolves to convene a session to examine the role of the Media in war, to clarify issues of accountability and to judge possible media wrongs against truth and humanity.

• A Wrong of Aggression – complicity in the waging of an aggressive war and perpetuating a regime of occupation that is widely regarded as guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
• A Wrong of Silence – neglect of the duty to give privilege and dignity to voices of suffering.

• A Wrong of Deception – complicity, through the validation and dissemination of disinformation, in enabling the fraudulent misappropriation of human and financial resources for war, from social development.
• A Wrong of Incitement – culpability for inciting an ideological climate of fear, racism, xenophobia and violence.

3. Against Humanity: (in addition to the above)

• A Wrong of Exclusion – complicity in the exclusion of the voices and visions of the social majorities for people’s security and well-being by privileging instead the priorities of the minority corporate-military elite.
• A Wrong of Usurpation – complicity in enabling the usurpation of human aspirations - for peace and justice - for political and economic profit.

In examining the above contexts of Media Wrongs, the Session will hear specific evidence relating to the Media’s treatments of the following issues:

The Justifications for War – the veracity of the ‘intelligence’ on Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq and the claimed link between the Iraqi government and global ‘terrorism’; the imminence and the ‘reality’ of the threat of Iraq to global security; the majority international legal opinion of the illegality of war without a specific and explicit UN mandate; the UN process of weapons inspections and subsequent debates within the Security Council and General Assembly; the evidence of US and UK ‘bugging’ of state and UN officials during the course of Security Council deliberations; the voices of global anti-war and peace movements; the perspectives of the Arab and non-western worlds on the prospects and strategies for security in the Arab region; the continuing realities of post-war Afghanistan as antecedent to the war in Iraq; geopolitical and historical contexts of aggression against Iraq; the likely civilian and social consequences of aggression within Iraq; the credibility of any post-war planning for social, economic and political reconstruction.

The Consequences and Costs of War – the human and social realities of ‘surgical strikes’ and ‘collateral damage’; the allegations of illegality and criminality of the conduct of war and occupation; the truths of ‘reconstruction’ and profiteering; the torture and abuse of civilians and detained persons throughout the occupation; the realities of ‘sovereignty’ in the transition process from occupation to Iraqi self-rule; the nature and content of Iraqi resistance to occupation; the costs of war to the treasuries of the ‘coalition’; the impact of war on security, both within Iraq and globally; the political consequences of the war across the world with respect democratic rights and governmental accountability; the prospects for the resolution of the Palestinian cause for justice and the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine in light of the war; the realities of human suffering left unregistered in the social conscience of the centres of privilege.

The aim of the Session is not to ‘sentence’ individual ‘criminal conduct’ of media personnel. Rather, it is to assess if the peoples towards whom the Media owe their duties of truth-telling have been betrayed, systematically and structurally, by the commission of the above-mentioned media wrongs against truth and humanity. In addition to the intention of recording a peoples’ judgement, further aims of the session are: first to suggest means by which a political process of consolidation of social standards for truth-telling may be undertaken, so that media conduct may in future be more readily held to task; and secondly, to broaden the horizons of ‘truth-telling’ from the domination of the corporate-controlled Media of the powerful states to include voices and perspectives of truth that are truly more reflective of global concerns.

3. The Proceedings and Participants:

The Session will be conducted over the course of 3 days wherein will be heard presentations of evidence and analysis in relation to the issues outlined. It will be constituted by a Tribunal Panel of Judgement, a Panel of Advocates, a Panel of Inspection, and the Jury of the Audience.

The Panel of Judgement will be charged with the responsibility of providing a reasoned statement of judgement at the conclusion of the proceedings, and any recommendations they see relevant to the protection of the people’s right to truth, and the Media’s obligations to Truth and Humanity.

It is hoped that the WTI Italy Session on Media Wrongs Against Truth and Humanity will contribute to an evolution of a Peoples’ Law language by which Media conduct is considered, and encourage further a culture of peoples’ scrutiny of institutionalised dissemination of information. May the people reclaim our rights to truth.

WTI Italy

Statement of Endorsement

I / We endorse the initiative of the WTI-Rome Session

If you would like to provide additional support, either financial or back-up services, please contact WTI Italy at the following address:

10 February 2005

7.00 pm – 8.00 pm: Opening Ceremony and Introductory Statements

• ‘Media Wars’ and the Histories of Media Propaganda, Disinformation and Resistance

• On Ownership, Message and Profits

• Theory and Practice of "Embeddedness"
• The Silencing Of Dissent