CNN's lack of objectivity and misinformation in "The Struggle for Kerkuk" programme

October 26, 2008

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2008/10/23/mme.a.struggle.for.kirkuk.cnn
CNN:
“Kirkuk in northern Iraq has some 10 billion barrels of oil. Both the Kurds and the Arabs claim ownership of the city. MME looks at the struggle for Kirkuk.” “For the Kurds, it’s about regaining lands Saddam’s regime took from them, for the Arabs its about keeping control over what they call “the breadbasket” of Iraq — which also has some 10 billion barrels of oil buried in Kurdish soil. With no political resolution in sight, MME looks at the struggle for Kirkuk. “
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My comments re CNN’s programme Marketplace Middle-East, ”The Struggle for Kerkuk” Arwa Damon reporting from Kerkuk and Erbil on October 23, 2008

In the programme “The Struggle for KERKUK” Arwa Damon describes KERKUK as “an ethnically mixed city “, she mentions the Arabs and the Kurds but not the TURKMENS despite the fact that the TURKMENS are the city’s original inhabitants and the north of Iraq’s second main ethnic component.

She interviewed several Arab and Kurdish politicians, allowing them to say “what they want or don’t want”, but it is quite shocking that she did not give the Turkmen politicians the same opportunity to express their views. Consequently, her report gives those who watched the programme a false picture of the situation in Kerkuk.

Interviewing representatives of the two ethnic groups who have armed militias, the Arabs and the Kurds, and ignoring the unarmed Turkmens is a strange conception of “democracy” and “fair reporting”.

KERKUK is the Turkmens’ capital city and main cultural centre in Iraq, therefore THEY are the first to be concerned with the fate of THEIR city and ignoring them proves once again that CNN reporters in Iraq due to their lack of objectivity and professionalism are misinforming their viewers.