With proper wars it is a well-known occurrence for one side's propaganda department to try and spread the most horrific stories about the other party. The opposition are depicted as brutal barbarians who ravage children and should be opposed at all cost. In military jargon this is known as 'psyops'. During the protests against the G8 in Heiligendamm there were clear indications of a similar strategy. In this case the infamous ''black block'' played the part of the barbarians. This is a biased summary of the misinformation and its effect.

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Just before Bono joined the G8 media circus, he visited the annual TED Global (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference on "Africa: The Next Chapter" in Arusha, Tanzania (4-7 June 2007). On his weblog "My heart's in Accra", Ethan Zuckerman has some interesting comments on the topic of Western aid to Africa and Bono's appearance on the conference.

Bij een echte oorlog is het een bekend verschijnsel dat de propaganda-afdeling van de ene partij probeert de meest verschrikkelijke verhalen over de andere partij te verspreiden. De tegenstanders worden dan afgebeeld als brute barbaren die kinderen verscheuren en die ten koste van alles bestreden moeten en mogen worden. 'Psyops' heet dat, in legerjargon. Tijdens de acties tegen de G8 in Heiligendamm, waren duidelijke sporen te vinden van een vergelijkbare strategie. In dit geval nam het beruchte 'Black Block' de rol van de barbaren in.

PERSBERICHT

Amsterdam 11.06.2007

G8: Ernstige inbreuk op de persvrijheid - mobiel redactiebureau door politie in beslag genomen

Bad Doberan, 6 juni 2007, tegen 19.30 uur. In de August-Bebel-Straße, direct naast het infopunt van de G8-tegenstanders aan het Kamp in Bad Doberan, omsingelt een grote groep politieagenten in strijduitrusting de 'Amsterdamse Mediabus' van het initiatief Dissent-Nederland.

"It’s a battle lost before started", was our first reaction when on Tuesday 5 June, one day before the start of the G8 summit, we tried to pay a visit to the international media centre in Kühlungsborn, a seaside resort not far from Heiligendamm. Non-accredited journalists such as ourselves were not able to enter, but the German documentary filmmaker C. who travelled with us did manage to get an accreditation and would later go inside with a camera.

"Een onbegonnen zaak" was onze eerste reactie, toen we op dinsdag 5 juni, de dag voor de G8-top daadwerkelijk moest beginnen, het officiële media-centrum in Kühlungsborn - het badplaatsje naast Heiligendamm - met een bezoek probeerden te vereren. Niet-geaccrediteerde mediawerkers zoals wijzelf kwamen er überhaupt niet in, maar de met ons meegereisde Duitse documentairemaker C. was het wel gelukt om accreditatie te verkrijgen en zou later nog met camera naar binnen gaan.

Lovely example of unbiased reporting by the Murdoch press...

This is seriously the worst article I've found in terms of G8 media coverage. I have a short list of boxes to tick in terms of how the mainstream media misrepresent protests, and this manages to cover most of them.

BBC journalist starts to wonder why she and thousands of other journalists even bother to travel from far and lock themselves up in a media village kilometers away from the summit itself. Followed by an item about the climate negotiations.

BBC Two, 6 June 2007, 21h48 UTC.

(flash video version)

(shamelessly copied from Ravage Digitaal: http://www.ravagedigitaal.org/2007/deel1/toestand6juni/toestand.php)

De afgelopen dagen werden we maar weer eens met de neus op de feiten gedrukt: door het papegaaiengedrag van de massamedia word je misleid waar je bijstaat. Nadat BNN had aangekondigd een live tv-show te gaan presenteren, waarin het tv-publiek een ongeneeslijk zieke vrouw per sms kon adviseren aan wie van drie nierpatiënten zij een nier zou afstaan, was de wereld te klein. Alles en iedereen tuimelde over elkaar heen om inzet van het programma als zijnde positief dan wel negatief te bestempelen.

Newsnight, BBC 2, June 8th 2007. And yet Newsnight ends the report with a positive conclusion.

Newsnight, BBC 2, June 8th 2007. This report is very critical about the aid to Africa the G8-summit has promised. Bob Geldof and Bono speak their mind.

RTL 4, Friday June 8th. This news item focuses on the poor results for Africa: not enough money, earlier promises that haven't been kept. Abdoulaye Wade, president of Senegal: "We have never seen one dollar of the 50 milliard extra that G8 agreed on in Gleneagles." Angela Merkel: "We have the duty to do as promised but only if Africa can live up to certain expectations. RTL 4 is the most critical of the Dutch broadcasts I saw. Even though they use Bono and Geldof to make the final critical statements.

NOS, NL 3, Friday June 8th. At this last day of the G8 the only thing this "young and hip" NOS journal gives attention to is that Putin is prepared to cooperate on the missile defence system with America. A whole 9 seconds is given to the G8 subject, poor Paris Hilton and the art of tattoo are getting main focus in this broadcast. That's what our young future leaders are interested in of course.

BBC News, Friday June 8th 2007.

NOS, NL 1, Friday June 8th. Focus in this report: The agreement on gas emmissions is not binding but there has been made progress in the promises made to Africa. Blair is given space to say: "We have recommitted ourselves to all commitments we've made in Gleneagles but the important thing is that we've set how we are going to do them." It is said that the world leaders have agreed on giving Africa much attention again at the next G8.

BBC journalist starts to wonder why she and thousands of other journalists even bother to travel from far and lock themselves up in a media village kilometers away from the summit itself. Followed by an item about the climate negotiations.

BBC Two, 6 June 2007, 21h48 UTC.

(trouble with this playing this video? try the high-res flash version.

ARD, Friday June 8th.

BBC news, Friday June 8th

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De Balie | za 09 jun, 17.00 u.
INFOWARROOM: Unspin the G8
Debriefing (workshop/debat)

URL | http://www.debalie.nl/artikel.jsp?articleid=110059
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Actuele mediakritiek tijdens het slotweekend van de INFOWARROOM. Daags na de G8 Summit in Duitsland beschouwen journalisten, analytici en activisten de berichtgeving over de G8.