Mitigating the Impact of Media Reporting of Terrorism: Iraq Case Study

This paper examines the coverage of the pan-Arab television stations Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera regarding events and terrorist attacks in the post-2003 Iraq invasion, including different insurgencies in Iraq.

This report is part of a wider project, led by the International Centre for Counter- Terrorism (ICCT) – the Hague, and funded by the EU Devco on “Mitigating the Impact of Media Reporting of Terrorism”. This project aims to produce evidence-based guidance and capacity building outputs based on original, context-sensitive research into the risks and opportunities in media reporting of terrorism and terrorist incidents. The role of media reporting on terrorism has been under investigated and is an underutilised dimension of a holistic counter-terrorism strategy. How the media reports on terrorism has the potential to impact counter-terrorism (CT) perspective positively or negatively.