Iraq casualties

The number of Iraqi civilians killed in the conflict is still in dispute

In this week’s global media show, The Listening Post, Richard Gizbert examines the continuing controversy surrounding civilian casualty figures in Iraq. And we travel to South Africa where The Sunday Times newspaper and the government are at loggerheads over reporting of the country’s AIDS crisis.

Four and a half years into the war in Iraq and the number of Iraqi civilians killed in the conflict is still in dispute. The US media puts the current figure at 70,000 but other studies claim that over one million have died.

It’s a measure of how politicized the Iraq story has become that whenever new casualty figures are released their methodology and motivation become the story.

Richard Gizbert speaks to the American academic who argues that the US media is in denial over the death toll in Iraq.

South Africa has hit the headlines for its HIV/AIDS epidemic

During the era of apartheid South Africa was one of the world’s biggest news stories. Since the collapse of that system the country has hit the headlines for its HIV/AIDS epidemic.

The reporting of that story has led to a clash between the government and the South African news media.

Controversial Health Minister Manto Tshabalala Tsimong has come under attack from the media both for her handling of the crisis and her outlandish claims that the virus can be treated with beetroot and garlic.

Sinead O’Shea spoke to journalists at The Sunday Times newspaper who are determined to publish the facts about the country’s AIDS epidemic.

In Newsbytes we take a look at the week’s other big media stories. Questions are being asked at Spanish TV station Antena 3 about how a man with a history of domestic violence was allowed on popular talk show Patricia’s Diary.

Questions about how a man with a history of violence was allowed on the show

The man proposed to his unsuspecting ex-girlfriend on air, she refused him and five days later according to police he turned up at her apartment and murdered her.