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enSs'n Broad-..asting Corporation Room i60i Teiev:sion Centre Wood Lane London W 12 7RJ Telephone 020 9576 71 7B Fax C2C E576 7120

From Di,ector, News

The Rf . Hon . Gerald Kaufman Ni .P .,

The House of Commons,
LONDON .
SvV1a oa~.
15 April, 2003

Dear Mr . Kaufman,

Thank you for your letter of 'i0 April .

( regret the fact that you feel our coverage on the day Baghdad fell
to American forces (0 Aprii) was too negative . BBC1 was, of
course, the on`y terrestrial TV channel to broadcast live the syrmboiic
scene of Saddam's statue being toppled . However, I will tackle your
specific criticisms in turn .

You begin with the BBC 1 News at u p .rn . and 10 p .m . In each case
you imply that the effect of the interview between the news
presenter and Rageh Omaar was to underplay the sense of
happiness in Baghdad . i reach a rather different conclusion about
the impact of the exchange . It is certainly true that television
pictures on the day the Berlin Wall fall - or the day
Slobodan Milosevic lost power - showed far more peopfe than the
pictures from fast week. However, of course, that does not mean
people did not feel an enormous sense of reiief or icy . And that is
exact!y :he poini that was cfarifed by the-journalism
' to which you
object. 1 quote the relevant passage r'rom Rageh Omaur:

"The thing is that those dramatic scenes; we saw just in front of

us irorn our hotel that we have been reporting this war From -
was beamed five round the world, You were seeing dozeris, it
not hundreds, of similar scenes certainly on the bank of the
Tigris river, in the Slnia suburbs where they carne to beat their
chests in a S ¬nia ritual that had been banned far years. E zhi'snk
the word spread very fast and hundreds of such
demonstrations took place ."

(3~'~j~f ~~~b
. . . . . . . . .12
164
 -2-

So we established there were more deirionstrators 'than were

literally v;sibla to the cameras . I am satisfied that nevertheless
:he se p~.~blic expressions of joy were not on the scale of some of ths
mass euphoria that accompanied the end of the Cold War
- perhaps because-,many may have felt concerned about their
safety.

Jeremy Paxman's question io Paul Wood about the demonstrations

was not about where the celebrations took place - but rather a bout
where the television pictures were shot. I quote the question to
Paul Wood : -

.,F1aal, those pictures were very dramatic, very te¬ ting, very
symbo ¬ 'sc; but they were all in a small area. Care you judge
corHigi"¢t the wider tnood?"

r,gain - I believe this to be a perfectly proper question which

produced a perfectly reasonable answer r'rom Paul Wood . Paul ,
who speaks some Arabic, spent hours moving around the city that
day and talked to a number of people . I back his judgement both on
the nature of the celebrations and t~ e nature of public ser~tima ¬~t .

?,s for the 'Nevvsnight' interview wita Captain Thorp,

Je-erny Paxman's line ot quastioning fegltimate!y explored the
problem of looting and violence . The interview was cou~~Dous ¬ y
conducted with Captain Thorp in Doha . i-ie put his case across
- `C~sewsnight' asked proper questions .

You suggest that our journalism has not been su-fficiently sceptical
a~out Iraci claims about civilian casualties . In all the outoui tlhat I
have watched or heard the figures have always been sourced . I do
I I I
n 0 'L think it would be rigM io ralus~- C) Publish -L~em . As ~or -~h-
ciatures o-i the children with burns - this was the commentary from
Paul
, Wood :

"The hospitals are over-Flowing ; the doctors are exhausted ; the

drugs are running aE.¬t. This is another crisis for the ArneriCans
to contend !!Y ¬ t ¬'1 .  ~~
~ C3 ~ Lt- ' O 1 -b -r- . . . . . . . . . . . .13
I do not ~egard this as unreasonable or unr"air.

Finally you compare our coverage of the anti-vdar demons'tratic>n in

mid-February with the coverage, last Wed7esday. I am not sure
whather you think we went overboard about tne million people who
marched in London . At that time of course there was significant
pualic and Parliamentary opposition to the war. It is not of itself a
decisiva argument but I can assure you we have received letters
and e-mails irom many Who think We paid too iiile attention to it .

Yours sincerely,

 f
c
(Richard Sambroolc)