Poland Media Present Iraq More Accurately to Polish People Than Western Media To Westerners
Classified Polnews
In Poland the television stations presented more accurate data about the Al Sadr demonstrations in Iraq, but even so, they missed the mark in not presenting more detail that would give the Polish people a better understanding of how their soldiers are affecting events in Iraq.
Polish Soldiers
In Iraq
Al Sadr called for demonstrations in Iraq on 9 April, 2007. His goal was to put 3 million people in the streets to protest the "American occupation" of Iraq.
Associated Press and the New York times reported tens of thousands people attended. Thousands of other news reports echoed the numbers.
Polish television, however, did its own estimate and reported ten thousand.
Reuters put the figure in the thousands.
Aerial photographs show that the actual number is between 5 and 7 thousand. See Pictorial Proof
The Polish media missed the mark by playing up the demonstration, even though they accurately reported the numbers.
They failed, however, to mention that this number was miniscule compared to the 3 million that Al Sadr wanted to turn out.
They also failed to compare, or mention, the demonstration against the sectarian violence that was held on Friday that brought out 3 thousand people. See Thousands in Baghdad Protest Against Sectarian Killings!
Perhaps most significant of all, however, is that the low turnout shows that since Al Sadr ran to Iran to escape the surge of troops into Baghdad, his power base has been eroded. And that has resulted in progress.
Is there progress? Among so many other things, girls can even go to school now.
Did the people in Poland ever know that girls were forbidden to go to school and do they know now that as a result of the surge they can?
The Polish press is to be congratulated for accuracy. Now they should broaden their coverage with similar accuracy and talk about how the Polish troops are helping to change the little things that are so important to everyday lives of the Iraqi people.
