US military stories are ads

2005-12-03 08:25

Jim Mannion

Washington - The United States military confirmed on Friday that it paid to place stories in Iraqi newspapers, going through third parties to reduce the risk to publishers.

However, the US-led Multi-National Force-Iraq insisted that such "information operations" were "an essential tool for commanders to ensure the Iraqi population has current, truthful and reliable information.

"As part of our operations, we have offered articles for publication to Iraqi newspapers, and in some cases articles have been accepted and published as function of buying advertising and opinion/editorial space, as is customary in Iraq," said a statement issued by the Multi-National Force-Iraq.

The statement said the procedures used to place the stories had undergone policy and legal review to ensure they complied with law and regulations.

The military is reviewing allegations raised in news reports about the programme.

The practice of paying to plant favourable stories in the Iraqi press is considered a blow to US credibility and to the independence of the Iraqi media.

Staff posed as freelance journalists

US senator John Warner said the Pentagon was still gathering information on the extent of the secret programme, as well as whether Iraqi journalists were paid by the military to write favourable stories.

According to Warner, senior Pentagon officials have confirmed that a private firm, the Lincoln Group, has been contracted to pay Iraqi news organizations to run military-produced stories as paid advertisements.

The Los Angeles Times reported this week that Lincoln Group staff in Iraq sometimes posed as freelance journalists or advertising executives when delivering stories to Iraqi news outlets, masking their connection to the military.

It said dozens of stories written by military "information operations" soldiers ran in Iraqi newspapers, many of them presented as unbiased news accounts by independent reporters.

US Knight-Ridder newspapers reported this week that the military has also paid Iraqi journalists to write favourable stories, making payments of up to $200 (R1 320) a month to members of a military-organised Baghdad press club.

Stories not identified as from the military

The senator has refrained from further comment until the military provides a fuller account, which he said the military command in Baghdad was preparing.

Warner added that US general George Casey, top commander in Iraq, is attempting to combat disinformation in the Iraqi media "in a truthful way".

"I strongly believe that we've got to do our best to combat this disinformation. And until I get all the facts, I'm not going to say further on how we go about it," he said.

The Lincoln Group has remained silent on whether it has paid Iraqi news organisations to run stories without identifying them as produced by the military.

- AFP