Peter Arnett – We need to know what happens in wars

Long serving war reporter and 1966 Pulitzer prize winner Peter Arnett spoke to students in Texas this week about the job of journalism in a war zone. Arnett reported from the Vietnam war for a period of thirteen years and he compared that experience to present day Iraq,

Reports found it incredibly difficult to write many of the important stories at the beginning of the war, Arnett said, because all sources had to be attributed by name and because an officer had to be present during every interview journalists had with other soldiers. “These stories were never written,” he said, “so the administration claims that we had succeeded in (Iraq), that the mission was accomplished. This was pretty much accepted by the American public, and the media wasn’t in a very good position to challenge that.” link

in 2003 Arnett was sacked by his employers NBC News, MSNBC and National Geographic Explorer for giving an interview to Iraqi television. He then went to work for The Daily Mirror.