Saturday, August 30, 2008

Zoriah - Stories from behind the headlines

Until recently Zoriah Miller was working as an independent photographer and journalist covering stories from Iraq that don't usually make the headlines. His amazing photography, often carried out under the most difficult of conditions however, lead to him being "disemebedded" i.e kicked out after he showed images of dead American soldiers. As the New York Times says;

"The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war."


In WWII the same policy was in place and even in Vietnam where the reporters were given free rein many media outlets refused to run stories or images that showed the US military in a bad light. Like Philip Jones Griffiths before him Zoriah is finding that its not just the military censors that have to be dealt with when covering a war zone but also the indifference of the public unwilling to hear about a war they so enthusiastically supported until very recently.

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