Why journalists must ask equally tough questions of their own leaders as they do of Putin

It is easy to demand answers from a foreign government, especially one that’s been accused of war crimes. It is much harder to apply that rigour closer to home, writes Andrew Buncombe

Jack Straw and Colin Powell address the United Nations shortly after 9/11 (Getty)

Nobody likes to fall out with the people they work with.

And if the people you work with are government officials whom you write about as a journalist, it’s not any different.

If you cover a specific department, such as defence or foreign affairs, your beat might carry on for years, and you might be to some extent reliant on those officials for your stories, or at need to have established a professional relationship so that you can go to them with queries or questions.

Sometimes, after a national tragedy, or during war, things can get complicated and lines become blurred.

After the 9/11 attacks, for instance, a number of US journalists found themselves adopting a “patriotic” stance many came to later regret, a stance that prevented them from adequately questioning the claims being made by George W Bush.

In particular, they did not question the claims he made about Saddam Hussein and Iraq; its alleged, but nonexistent weapons of mass destruction; and its alleged, not nonexistent, links to Al-Qaeda.

One of the best of them, Dan Rather of CBS News, later said he felt that “patriotism had ran amok”.

“You know there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tires around people’s necks if they dissented,” he told BBC’s Newsnight in 2002. “And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions.”

Neither Britain or the United States is at war with Russia, but both nations are heavily supporting Ukraine, both with arms and money, as well as through sanctions.

At The Independent, journalists have been writing about the attacks on Ukrainian cities, the alleged war crimes in places such as Bucha, the heroic efforts of volunteers to feed people in besieged cities, and the warm welcome given to refugees by nations such as Poland.

All of this is good and proper. And it is correct that we ask the toughest questions we have the opportunity to of the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin, who claimed to have launched a “special military operation” to protect Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, but appears to have committed war crimes.

Yet it is equally important – more so, perhaps – to ask the same tough questions of our own governments. Often, government officials are ready with a quote or a piece of information that can appear very useful. But we need to scrutinise these claims and assertions with the same vigor as we do those being made by the Kremlin. And we need to ensure we report with accuracy and fairness claims made about potential war crimes committed by Ukrainian troops, such as the alleged shooting of Russian prisoners of war.

One reason for this is that the conflict in Ukraine is not simply fought on the battlefield, but attendant to an information war. We have seen Russia’s efforts at disinformation in action, but we also know all parties seek to shape the narrative of what is happening amid the so-called fog of war.

If we need a reminder of this, think only of the encounter between Ukrainian troops and Russian forces that became known as the “Russian warship, go f*** yourself”, incident. The heroic cursing soldiers were said to been killed by Russian troops as they refused to surrender themselves on Snake Island. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky announced he would “posthumously” award the soldiers with the highest Ukrainian honour, the Hero of Ukraine. But four days later, it was announced the 13 men were alive and had been captured.

More obviously, we know that western governments have misled us and lied in the past. And it is far easier for us to hold those officials accountable than it is the likes of Putin.

We know how the US and British governments misled the public over Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction. We also know that Boris Johnson is at the centre of a mounting controversy over mistruths spoken over claims he and staff at Downing Street had broken lockdown rules. We know now – after months of strident denials – there were drinks parties when the rest of the nation was facing £10,000 fines for breaches.

If we don’t ask these questions, we’re not doing our jobs and we’re adding to that fog of war. I remember with a grimace a briefing that the then UK foreign minister Jack Straw gave to a small group of journalists at the time of the UN General Assembly in November 2001, delayed by two months because of the 9/11 attacks.

Straw said he would prefer to speak “on background” – that meant we could cite his comments to a senior British official but could not name him, so he could “speak more openly”. To his credit, the reporter from The Times said he was happy to listen to what Straw had to say, but that he also wanted a comment from Straw on the record, something that mightily irked Straw’s press officer who said he was being “difficult”.

To my shame, I was happy to let Straw waffle on about alleged progress being made in northern Afghan cities such as Mazar-e-Sharif, all cited to “the senior official”.

“There must be no more Great Games with Afghan people the pawns,” Straw told the UN General Assembly a day after spelling to us, his speech following that of then US secretary of state Colin Powell. About 15 months later, Powell would incorrectly tell the same body that the US had found evidence Iraq was developing WMD. How does either remark stand up 20 years later?

Soon after speaking to Straw, we’d all learn that one of the west’s allies in Afghanistan, warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum, had killed hundreds or perhaps even thousands of Taliban prisoners in December 2001 by shooting them or suffocating them in sealed metal containers. So much for “progress”.

And weeks after Powell falsely told the assembly “Iraq’s behavior demonstrates that Saddam Hussein and his regime have made no effort – no effort – to disarm as required by the international community”, the west illegally invaded and devastated a nation, a decision that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens, as well as hundreds of US and UK troops.

The lesson of this? It is easy to demand answers from a foreign government, especially one that’s been accused of war crimes. It is much tougher to apply that rigour closer to home. Yet, that is what we must do so.

Yours,

Andrew Buncombe

Chief US correspondent