Media Blackouts
Winston Churchill once said that a lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. In today’s world it’s always the same story where media is often controlled to be used as a tool of manipulation that is used to change people’s thinking. Media often falsifies information, creates lies, ignores truths and hides realities and facts to give way for more important and secret plans. I believe news media often misrepresent global events by creating media blackouts. In this essay I will focus on three examples of media blackouts throughout history, and I will explore the motives behind those media blackouts before reaching a conclusion which explains the moral gained from these examples.
The first example is the Egypt-Israel war of 1967. The war between Egypt and Israel was on territorial claim of Sinai where Israel claimed that Sinai was part of their country. The Egyptian army was defeated in this war and could not bare the shame of defeat at home. Therefore, the Egyptian media blacked out the defeat of their army and the loss of territory in this war. The second example is the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. Early in the Bush administration, Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba was turned into a detention camp for terrorists captured after September 11, 2001. The reason the camp was used is because the rules of transferring prisoners between countries and a chance of a fair trial in the USA was not applicable in Guantanamo Bay. The prisoners faced torture for many years before being released, and most of them were banned from contacting anyone in the outside world. The truth about Guantanamo was revealed after one of its prisoners filed a law suit against the US Government saying that Guantanamo broke the rules of the Geneva Convention. Media blackout on Guantanamo lasted for several years until this law suit and then the whole world media attention was turned towards the truth about Guantanamo bay. The third example is Abu Ghuraib
The first example is the Egypt-Israel war of 1967. The war between Egypt and Israel was on territorial claim of Sinai where Israel claimed that Sinai was part of their country. The Egyptian army was defeated in this war and could not bare the shame of defeat at home. Therefore, the Egyptian media blacked out the defeat of their army and the loss of territory in this war. The second example is the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp. Early in the Bush administration, Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba was turned into a detention camp for terrorists captured after September 11, 2001. The reason the camp was used is because the rules of transferring prisoners between countries and a chance of a fair trial in the USA was not applicable in Guantanamo Bay. The prisoners faced torture for many years before being released, and most of them were banned from contacting anyone in the outside world. The truth about Guantanamo was revealed after one of its prisoners filed a law suit against the US Government saying that Guantanamo broke the rules of the Geneva Convention. Media blackout on Guantanamo lasted for several years until this law suit and then the whole world media attention was turned towards the truth about Guantanamo bay. The third example is Abu Ghuraib