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claims that the Iraqi regime deliberately prevented food and medicines from reaching the Iraqi people. Halliday was mentioned in three of the 12,550 Guardian and Observer articles mentioning Iraq in 2003; von Sponeck was mentioned in these and two more.

How many know that leading epidemiologist Les Roberts recently estimated that between 200,000 and 300,000 Iraqi civilians may have been killed since the invasion? Roberts argues that the most commonly cited source for Iraqi civilian casualties - amateur website Iraq Body Count (IBC) - may have captured less than five per cent of the true total.

Roberts recently said of an IBC report defending its work: "I discussed it with some of my co-authors. We decided that it was so devoid of credibility, and so laden with self-interest rather than the interest of the Iraqis, it did not merit a response."

How many know that the mortality of children in Basra "has increased by nearly 30 per cent compared with the Saddam Hussein era", according to Dr Haydar Salah, a paediatrician at Basra Children's Hospital?
How many know a leading epidemiologist estimated 200,000 to 300,000 Iraqi civilians may have been killed?

Why is so little of this reported so rarely? In their "propaganda model of media control" Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky identified factors that filter media content.

Media corporations are profit-seeking businesses, owned by very wealthy people or parent companies; they are funded largely by advertisers which are also profit-seeking businesses and want their adverts to appear in a supportive selling environment.

The media is deeply dependent on government and major business firms as sources of information, which tends to promote solidarity between them. Government and large business firms are also best able to pressure the media with threats of withdrawal of advertising, libel suits, and other direct and indirect forms of attack.

All these factors ensure that what we see and read is what powerful interests want us to see and read. Chomsky provides the vital rule of thumb: "The basic principle, rarely violated, is that what conflicts with the requirements of power and privilege does not exist."

FIRST POSTED JULY 4, 2006

David Edwards and David Cromwell are co-editors of www.medialens.org

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