http://ioc.sagepub.com/Index on Censorship

http://ioc.sagepub.com/content/28/3/20.citationThe online version of this article can be found at:

 DOI: 10.1080/03064229908536578

1999 28: 20Index on CensorshipRichard Holbrooke

No media - no war  

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of: 

  Writers and Scholars International Ltd

can be found at:Index on CensorshipAdditional services and information for    

  http://ioc.sagepub.com/cgi/alertsEmail Alerts:

 

http://ioc.sagepub.com/subscriptionsSubscriptions:  

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.navReprints:  

http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.navPermissions:  

What is This? 

- May 1, 1999Version of Record >>

at Macquarie University Library on November 16, 2014ioc.sagepub.comDownloaded from at Macquarie University Library on November 16, 2014ioc.sagepub.comDownloaded from

RICHARD HOLBROOKE

No media - no war

Bosnia had a storyline, a very clear storyline, and as a result of thatstoryline the press, led by the New York Times and CNN had an

amazing impact on policy in the United States; I think there wascomparable coverage in Europe. Let's be clear: the reason the Westfinally, belatedly intervened was heavily related to media coverage. Thereason Rwanda did not get the same kind of attention was heavilyrelated to media coverage — or the lack thereof.

Just a week ago, I was on a panel at the Museum of Broadcasting inNew York where Christiane Annanpour was challenged by a panellistwho said, 'You did a great job in Bosnia, why didn't you go to Rwandawhere far more people died?' Her answer was astonishing: politely butfirmly 'I was in Rwanda. I did cover it. I know what was happening butthe O J Simpson trial was on and I couldn't get on the air for CNN.'

One million people died in four months in an organised genocidethat has been matched only a few times this century. But CNN was toobusy. The Bosnia coverage really made a difference.

Let me move quickly to the current situation, to Kosovo. In Kosovo,the storyline re-emerged very dramatically. And it has had a huge effecton policy in the last year. A year ago, 13 months ago today, the KosovaLiberation Army was unheard of. In less than a year, more rapidly thanany other liberation front in history, it has imposed itself as aninternational factor in policy-making. Castro, the Viet Cong, the PLO:no similar organisation ever moved that fast.

And that is what the media has done. You can like it or dislike it.Milosevic's view on this is well known: he thinks it's a media plot. Ithink the journalists have done their job. They've reported an importantpolitical fact. But 10 years after the Wall, as we now face the mostserious crisis that NATO and the US, our NATO allies and the EU havefaced since the end of the Cold War, the media is playing a central role.For policy-makers, what is reported and what isn't matters profoundly.

20 INDEX ON CENSORSHIP 3 1999 at Macquarie University Library on November 16, 2014ioc.sagepub.comDownloaded from

KOSOVO

Now perhaps the policy-makers spend too much time trying to shapethe reporting on the first day and then over reacting to it the next day.That would be my view: they should do less spinning and then less over-reacting but that's something one can't change, it's inherent in the natureof Washington. And we're just going to have to live with it. But if thepress had not been in Suvereka in September with those extroardinarypictures of 13 people who had been massacred; and again in Racak inJanuary with the 45 people who had been massacred, everything wouldhave been different. Those events — the inexcusable slaughter ofinnocent people by Serbian security forces - were not withoutprecedent: many similar things throughout the region in the last decadehad gone unreported. [This time] it was the media coverage that drovefirst the events that lead to my October mission which resulted in atemporary agreement which was constrained by the fact that it had noenforcement provisions and we had no ground troops; and the secondset of negotiations which have now run their course and led to theinevitable.

Milosevic's decision to take the course he chose has made thebombing inevitable and unavoidable; in effect, he pulled the trigger onhimself. This process was profoundly, centrally affected on a day by daybasis by the coverage in the press. I do want to stress how central theirrole has been. Q

Richard Holbrooke is the US Special Envoy to former Yugoslavia. He wasspeaking at 'Between Past and Future' a conference held at the Central EuropeanUniversity, Budapest, 26-28 March this year

INDEX ON CENSORSHIP 3 1999 21 at Macquarie University Library on November 16, 2014ioc.sagepub.comDownloaded from