Coverage of Saddam Execution

The media coverage of the hanging of Saddam over the weekend was deplorable to say the least,a point reiterated by John Prescott this morning on the Today programme.

"I don't think one can endorse in any way that, whatever your views about capital punishment."

"Frankly, to get the kind of recorded messages coming out is totally unacceptable.

Whatever your position on capital punishment,for it to be portrayed in some a gruesome way across the media is a traversity on the system of justice that came to this conclusion.Within hours of the event,web sites such as You Tube and Google were showing the grainy camera video of the former dictators final moments.The following day nearly all the Uk media had pictures of Saddam on the scaffold and yesterday the Guardian amongst others had stills of the actual hanging.

It appears though that our demand for this kind of coverage is unrelating

"Saddam Hussein's execution on Saturday morning looks to have boosted the audience for BBC1's early evening news bulletin that day, with more than 7 million viewers tuning in."

(From Guardian media this afternoon).

Greenslade writes in his blog

"The debate about what was shown of Saddam Hussein's execution - and what should have been shown - must continue. It goes to the heart of so many dilemmas. Should people be restricted from seeing anything they want? If so, who should act as the arbiter? Do we have a democratic right to decide these matters as individuals? Does the apparent hunger in the West to view the images of Saddam indicate that taste has been incorrectly imposed in the past by mainstream media? "

Dan Glaister writing in the same paper yesterday

As TV debated the morals of showing explicit images of what it trumpeted as the Death of a Dictator, the video of Saddam Hussein's execution was already circulating on the internet.
"Awaiting first pictures of Saddam Hussein execution" read the news flash on CNN as an Iraqi government national security adviser who had witnessed the execution told the channel that it would be some time before a decision on whether to release the footage would be made.

Another example of citizen journalism setting the news agenda.