“We aren’t going to get these images and just slap them on TV”Īrab networks certainly did not let this opportunity for competitive coverage pass them by. But what may be remembered longer is that from Minnesota to Manila, public opinion addressing the execution and its coverage exploded onto the World Wide Web giving anyone with Internet access the opportunity to take part in history. Despite efforts-or alleged efforts as the case may be-to secure the premises of the execution so as to prevent leaked footage, international audiences witnessed-many for the first time-a capital punishment online.Ĭertainly, the outbreak of videophone footage of Saddam Hussein’s execution poses a new set of questions for reporters and Internet users alike about the ethical codes of news dissemination and consumption. The role of citizen journalists had never been so prominent as in the coverage of Saddam Hussein’s demise. If mainstream media were to learn one thing from the execution aftermath, it was this: they are no longer in the reporting game alone.
Because Milosevic died suddenly of apparent heart failure in a Hague prison while awaiting sentencing for crimes against humanity there is no telling what level of media attention his death may have prompted had he actually been sentenced to death like Saddam Hussein. Hussein’s death, as compared to the death last year of another so-called butcher Slobodan Milosevic, sparked sensationalist responses around the globe. Anyone with Internet access (or TiVo digital video recording) who wanted to watch the execution could take part in a global forum of opinion and could see coverage of the events. However, in a globalized world timing matters little. Incidentally, American networks had poured their resources into a week’s worth of coverage following the death of former President Gerald Ford whose funeral had been earlier that same day. The timing was inopportune for most Western networks and so little was afforded in coverage upon first word of the hanging. It was dawn in Baghdad on the first day of the Muslim feast of Eid Al Adha, December 30 2006, and just past 10pm on the American East Coast at the heart of the New Year’s weekend, when Saddam Hussein was executed. US and Iraqi officials were assuring the media that Saddam Hussein would be executed before the New Year. The fact is no one really knew what kind of actual footage would be released following the execution. So they treaded carefully, attempting to show just enough footage to convince people that he was dead without further inciting sectarian tensions. Middle Eastern networks-particularly those catering to primarily Iraqi audiences-had to prepare for repercussions of a quite different order.
Western networks simply sought to show enough of the final moments of Saddam Hussein’s life to captivate viewers without offending them. The scrutiny was different for both camps. Networks on both sides of the Atlantic wrangled with questions of ethics leading up to his Decemhanging as to what could and what could not be shown on television. The build-up prior to the actual execution date was significant-both in America and in the Arab world.
SADDAM HUSSEIN CAPTURE DATE TRIAL
Occasionally, his outbursts received a tracked package on Western networks, but for the most part the day-to-day of the trial received less than a minute of coverage.īut despite his courtroom antics, Saddam Hussein’s execution had the potential of being a far bigger blockbuster than his trial or sentencing. On more than one occasion he even shouted defiantly that he remained the rightfully elected leader of Iraq. He would constantly threaten boycotts, hunger strikes, not to mention retribution.
As for the lead character, he almost always gave a stellar performance. Throughout the course of the trial, unique characters came and went-some of them judges and lawyers who disappeared because they were either fed up, afraid for their lives or killed witnesses who more often than not hid behind a curtain in fear of facing the once-ruthless so-called “Butcher of Baghdad” and alleged accomplices who shouted, boycotted and even went on hunger strikes. Although Saddam Hussein’s trial for killing 148 Iraqi Shi’as from the village of Dujail dragged on a grueling 14 months, it actually made for a stunning courtroom drama: a once-powerful dictator is pulled from a hole in the ground looking as dismal as can be imagined he is interrogated, checked for fleas and bite-sized weapons of mass destruction then spruced up for his post-captivity television debut only to be sentenced to death some months later.
It is perhaps ironic that the man who controlled the broadcast of his image with an iron grip was executed in one of the most widely watched news events of recent times.īut then you could say his last 14 months alive were one long television performance.
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