Press coverage of the Demonstration of 2 March 2002

by Stephen Hewitt 31 May 2002

"MARK LEES/PA
For peace: at least 15,000 people, including Tony Benn, converged on Trafalgar Square yesterday to protest against American plans for action against Iraq. Tony Blair will meet George Bush early next month for talks. See page 18"

- The Independent on Sunday 3 March 2002, page 4

The photograph above and the caption below it are how the Independent on Sunday portrayed the demonstration of 2 March 2002 against British participation in an attack on Iraq. (See also Speeches in Trafalgar Square, London 2 March 2002 ) What the newspaper has very subtly done, without telling a single lie, is to portray the march as a muslim march. It has also avoided any image showing a large number of people present. For a more realistic cross-section of the marchers, see the many photographs at http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/pictures.html

There was one other report in a national newspaper:

Thousands in anti-war demo

About 10,000 protesters gathered in Trafalgar Square yesterday to demonstrate against the US `axis of evil' campaign, writes Burhan Wazir.

Brought together by the Stop the War coalition, the demonstrators included Arab human rights groups, socialist parties and anti-globalisation campaigners. Prominent speakers included Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbin and Tariq Ali.

- Observer Sunday 3 March 2002, page 7 in a column under the title "News in brief"

It is also instructive to compare the number of demonstrators reported by each paper. These mutually contradictory reports mean there is no reason to believe that the figures that appear in the national press are reliable. By the way, the organisers estimated that there were 20,000 people.