Telling the Afghanistan war story
Operation Moshtarak marked a change in the way Nato and the allies deal with the media.
Watch part two
This week on The Listening Post: The ‘hearts and minds’ side of Operation Moshtarak in Afghanistan and the proposed legislation that could make Iceland a haven for journalists.
In our News Divide this week we report on the new Nato offensive in Afghanistan.
Even before it began, editors, correspondents and defence analysts were told that Operation Moshtarak was going to be a big one.
The media campaign conducted in the run-up to the military push was different. It was one part declaration of strength and one part strategic change of approach – at least on the information side.
In eight years of fighting in the country, the combined Nato and allied forces have found that they tend to lose support among Afghans not just over civilian casualties but often due to the very public denial of responsibility by Western forces for those casualties.
Operation Moshtarak was more than a military offensive. It marked a significant change in how Nato and its allies deal with the media and handle their public relations.
Our report goes back to the Afghanistan war story and shows the change in the way it is being told – to the Afghans affected and news audiences around the world.
For our feature report this week, The Listening Post’s Meenakshi Ravi takes a longer look at a story that we touched on last week in Iceland.
A new proposed law there called the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) has caught the attention of journalists, civil rights organisations and media all over the world.
The idea behind IMMI is simple but ambitious: Bring together some of the most progressive media laws from around the world to create one holistic law that will position the north Atlantic country at the forefront of the battle to protect journalists, whistle blowers and their sources from legal action.
The question we explore is whether one legal initiative in one country can offer protection from libel charges for embattled journalists in Sri Lanka, bloggers in Egypt and authors around the world.
In our Newsbytes section: A Danish newspaper apologises for offence caused by the publishing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, while a Russian business tycoon buys the Independent newspaper in the UK; the BBC plans radio and online cutbacks; the US military warms up to the idea of social networking and three Google executives are convicted for violating privacy laws in Italy.
Our viral web video of the week is called “How to make your own viral video”. Dan Ackerman Greenberg, a web entrepreneur, sheds light on the secret strategies behind many successful viral web videos and of all the “How to make your own viral video” videos out there in cyber world, his has accumulated the most hits. Watch it here.
This episode of The Listening Post aired from Friday, March 5, 2010.