18 Media ethics in times of war * Yuval Cherlow A. When a democratic society experiences a state of war, it must deal with the conflict that necessarily exists between the idea of a free media on one hand and the war goals and the ability to achieve a victory on the other. A free media may prevent the possibility of achieving a victory: it exposes military secrets; it raises and airs discussion about the war’s justification, and may damage the self confidence of the troops; it decreases the national morale; and it may move the public to extreme positions opposing the war. Additionally, at times the media may cause severe injury to individual privacy, for example by publishing reports and photographs of casualties even before the person’s family is notified. Then again, a free media is not only unavoidable due to the internet, the availability of cameras and videos and other technological devices which make it practically impossible to stem the flow of information, making the need for a free media much more important. Free media is the primary means that enables public discussion about the war’s objectives, the ways to control the war, and to search for other solutions to the conflict that are better than military action. The situation of the media in wartime has undergone a significant change in recent years that warrants a new discussion concerning basic assumptions about the goals and objectives of the media in wartime. In the past, the media was an addendum to the war. Most of the public’s attention was given to the battlefield, so the discussion about the role of media was influenced by its ancillary role. The main ethical issue was how to balance between the effort to achieve victory in the battlefield and the importance of open discussion in order to supervise the goals of the war. Open media was often considered dangerous, mainly because of the enemy’s ability to uncover military-related information through the media, potentially causing damage in the battlefield. Today, the media is no longer an addendum, but an integral part of the battle. 1 The new technologies that bring the battlefield to every place in the world in real time, the world’s transformation to a global village, and the negative public attitude to the violence used by states, have transformed the question of what will be presented from the battlefield in the world’s media into a component that determines defeat or victory. The awareness of the limitations of force means that War and Peace in Jewish Tradition : From the Biblical World to the Present, edited by Yigal Levin, and Amnon Shapira, Taylor & Francis Group, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/princeton/detail.action?docID=957666. Created from princeton on 2023-03-21 09:39:12. Copyright © 2011. Taylor & Francis Group. All rights reserved.