Media and news

Media and news

Ways of spreading news and getting news in Iranian prisoners of war camps in Iraq.

There have been many definitions of news, but none of them has been comprehensive enough. However, we can generally accept the definition provided by Yunes Shokrkhah (2013):

"News is a correct and accurate, concrete and unbiased account of an event."

Describing and dealing with details of news

Based on the above definition, the following five elements can be distinguished in the news:

1. Narration of a specific event or topic that  has happened.

2. The verity of the news. Therefore, an untrue account of an incident is not considered news. Although some experts include fake news in the definition of news.

3. Accuracy in reporting news. It should be noted that accuracy is part of the main essence of news; Because carelessness in quoting the details of the incident or statistics related to the news event distorts its essence.

4. Objectivity. It means that the occurrence of the event is certain, that is, the cases related to the illusion or imagination of the narrator of the event are not included in the definition of news. In this case, the news related to the prediction of future developments, if it has scientific documentation, although they have not assumed objectivity yet, they are included in the definition of news.

5. Impartiality or fairness in spreading news, although impartial reporting of any event is considered an important condition of a correct faultless news. But many pieces of information

are covered during the day, which are considered news even though the reader of that news is not impartial. Therefore, presenting a comprehensive perfect definition entails certain problems that can not be discussed in here, just suffice it to say that, once our narrative is based on verity, precision, objectivity and impartiality, it is most  bound to result in the formation of “healthy news”, so to speak, and in the case that any of the above-mentioned components is missing, “unhealthy news” will be most likely to form

The importance and role of news in the camps

Since the Iranian prisoners in the Iraqi camps had to live inside the camps round the clock, access to news outside the camp, especially what was related to Iran and the developments of war and peace, was of paramount importance to each and every prisoner, so that circulation of a good or bad news could change the psychological atmosphere of the camp and the prisoners in general. Therefore, one of the daily concerns of Iranian prisoners was accessing information and news about Iran, especially about developments of the war.

Ways of getting news in captivity

According to the conditions of the Red Cross camps that were seen or not seen (unregistered), the situation of obtaining news differed from one camp to another. But in general, the sources of obtaining news in the camps of Iranian prisoners of war in Iraq can be categorized into the following:

Iraqi newspapers

In the prisoners of war camps in Iraq, four newspapers were distributed in proportion to the number of sanatoriums in each camp. Of course, it would be a rarity if all 4 types of newspaper reached the captives;1- Al-Thawrah newspaper, the media platform of Iraq's ruling Baath party; 2- Al-jomhuryyah, the media platform of the Iraqi government; 3- Al-Ghadesyyah, the media platform of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, and 4- was the Baghdad Observer, which was published in English. The interesting thing about these newspapers was that, without exception, every day they printed Saddam's big photo in different ways on the front page. It didn't matter if the news was about Saddam or not.

The more interesting thing was about the control of the news inside Iraq, that the negative news inside Iraq was not reflected in these newspapers in any way, and so far as Iraqis were concerned with, to begin with, no news that could reveal to Iranian captives what was actually happening within the boundaries of Iraq, existed.

On the contrary, positive news about Iran was not covered at all. In this case, they were so careful that, for example, during the Seoul Olympics in 1988, Iran's name was removed from the ranking table of countries' medals. Accordingly, negative news about Iran, such as floods, earthquakes, defeat of Iranian sports teams in international competitions, and news of corruption and internal differences of the government in Iran, were covered  according to daily events.

During their free time outside the asylums, the Iranian prisoners, who were fluent in Arabic or English, could sometimes read the news related to Iran, which was not in the text of the newspaper, and therefore they had to extract it from the analytical writings in the editorials of the five newspapers this especially applied to the negotiation process that started in 1988 after the acceptance of the resolution and the establishment of a ceasefire, whose news could only be found among the analyzes and notes of the newspaper.

Persian language publications

Since the majority of Iranian prisoners did not know Arabic or English, in order to influence the Iranian prisoners, the Iraqi government tried to provide the Persian-language publications of the Mojahedyn-e-Khalgh Organization (Monafeghyn) to the prisoners, so that on the one hand, it could create an atmosphere of despair and quandary by spreading negative and demoralizing news concerning Iran, and on the other hand ,it could show that Iraq had the upper hand at the war .But, these publications were often analyzed by the Iranian captives who had a profound insight into political matters.

Iraqi radio and television

Another way of getting news was to listen to the news that was broadcast through the camp speaker instead of music. Of course, they gradually brought televisions to each sanatorium, which in some cases broadcast the Azadi TV programs (Television of theMojahedin-e-Khalgh in Iraq in Persian language), which also had a separate news channel in Persian language.

Iraqi guards

Another source of  news in the camps were the Iraqi guards, who either directly provided the prisoners with news that was false or true, or partly true and partly false, with the aim of encouraging or discouraging them. In some cases, this action was carried out through the prisoners' liaisons, and in some cases, directly through the announcement next to the windows of the sanatoriums when the prisoners were inside the sanatoriums. Interestingly, some Iraqis, who behaved relatively better towards Iranians, would secretly provide real encouraging news to the functionary of asylums or Iranian prisoners, who were familiar with the Arabic language, so that they could also inform  other prisoners of the good news.

Red Cross agents

Another source of obtaining news in the camps which had been introduced to the World Red Cross were the Red Cross agents who, during their periodic visits to the camps, would , so to speak, leak some news or announce it publicly. In some cases, with the permission of the Iraqis, books and pamphlets were provided to the prisoners, in which news tips were hinted. (→ Books and reading books)

Iran Radio Station

At one point, the Iranian prisoners in the Mosul camp (→ camp) had managed to hide the radio belonging to one of the Iraqi guards and, in cases where it was possible, to listen to the national news of Iran Radio and make it available to others by taking notes.

Ways of spreading news in captivity

The  organizing process of spreading  news in the camps of Iranian prisoners of war in Iraq was considered one of the most complex  issues by Iranian prisoners; it was simply a testimony to the individual and group creativity in organizing a powerful secret news work.

Reading news in the statistics queues

Extraction and analysis of news were conducted by captives who were familiar with Arabic or English and then  these news along with their analysis in the queue of prisoners were read out. To count the prisoners, the Iraqis put them in rows of five, and since there were between 1,000 and 4,000 captives in each camp, the counting took a long time (→ Statistics).

Providing news in secret manners

During captivity, efforts were made to spread the news of the camp secretly  within the camp or between different parts, which were separated by barbed wire. One of the ways was to write news on small pieces of paper that were stowed into empty antibiotic capsules and sent to another camp through the hospital by the sick prisoners of that camp.

The camp kitchen

Another way of spreading news between different parts of the camp, which could not communicate with each other, was through the kitchen; Because the daily meals representatives  had to go to the kitchen  to take the delivery of breakfast or lunch or dinner. During these times, there was a good opportunity to exchange news within the camp. For this reason, some captives used to make fun and say: According to the "Cauldron Press" report, something happened.

Publishing news in clusters

Captives exchanged news with one another between sanatoriums or sections during forced labor, where prisoners from different sections of the same camp were placed together. The exchange of news was sometimes carried out one by one and sometimes by one person to several others and they to several others in a cluster.

A clinic or hospital

In some cases, news was received or spread through clinics or hospitals; Therefore, the clinic inside the camps and the hospitals outside the camp were both responsible for receiving news and spreading it. The prisoners who visited the clinic would communicate with the manager of the clinic, who was usually an Iranian and in some cases an Iraqi doctor, and through this communication, sometimes important news were transferred

See also

• connections
• Ways of getting news in captivity
• Ways of spreading news in captivity

bibliography

Hasan Beheshtipour