Written question asked by David Drew (Labour) on Tuesday, 25 March 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 27 March 2003. It was answered by Lord Moonie (Labour) on Thursday, 27 March 2003 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what monitoring his Department undertakes of reports from (a) print and (b) broadcast journalists operating in Iraq.

Answer: Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what monitoring his Department undertakes of reports from (a) print and (b) broadcast journalists operating in Iraq. [105377] Dr. Moonie: The Ministry of Defence does not exclusively monitor reports from print and broadcast journalists operating in Iraq. However, we do receive a daily press cutting service highlighting stories in the printed media with a defence interest and, during the present crisis, we have appointed a watchkeeper in our Press Office to monitor the broadcast output from the main channels. The Media Monitoring Unit of the Cabinet Office also provides the Department with a daily Iraq briefing. Separately, we have let a contract to provide a weekly evaluation of the printed media's coverage of the Iraq crisis.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 105377; 402 c308W
Session: 2002-03
Subjects: Broadcasting Armed conflict Iraq Journalism Newspaper press Monitoring Iraq conflict
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk