Among the many remarkable scenes coming out of Baghdad today were some shot at a press conference held by American authorities to announce Saddam's capture. You may have scene some of the journalists at that press conference stand up and cheer. On some journalism lists I'm on, that's brought some condemnation; that journalists, who are supposed to be objective, just shouldn't behave that way.
To which I say:
Those cheering were Iraqi journalists. There are no reports of Western reporters doing the same
thing. And while there is certainly great controversy over the reasons for this war, there seems to be little doubt that Hussein engaged in brutal campaigns of torture and murder against whole groups of his population.
And, of course, there was hardly an open and free media within Iraq during his reign.
So I'm not sure I wouldn't have stood up and cheered also, had I been an Iraqi journalist in Iraq for the last 25 years, unable to do my job with any freedom while my government slaughtered entire villages.
Tom Popyk,, a freelancer in Baghdad used by CTV News from time to time, had this to say about the cheering journalists:
I wasn't at the presser, but I have attended my share in the past 3 months and have met many of those, cheering, reporters.
All the ones I spotted on the screen were locals; the most ebullient from Kurdish and long-time anti-Baathist groups.
For the record: I did not recognize any one [from] Fox news cheering.
(An aside: everyone I've met here who works for Fox always apologizes during introductions and says something like “don't hold it against me”. I am serious.)
But most local wayward journos are enamored of a simple premise: they get to put pen to paper, and not get thrown into prison for life. Freedom of expression is wholly new here. Personal expression, political expression, artistic expression, journalistic expression. They're working through it. In the meantime all are being tested in ways unimaginable 8 months ago, and are mixed up in a giddy press circus.
So, today the man who represented that brutal repression, who slaughtered thousands, sent sons and daughters to torture, was arrested and will be tried for the crime. After living through that 25 years of fear, I think they've earned the outburst.
And in any case, I've seen worse displays from the press, in the Air Canada Centre, during a Leaf's winning streak.