World

attack. Sky News reported, ‘It is horrific, as the detailsbecome clear of exactly what happened, it’s even moreshocking, (the tourists) were separated off from the trailand butchered, they were literally hacked to death,’(3.3.99 Sky News 1808 hours). The adjectives ‘hacked’ and‘bludgeoned’ to death permeated the news accountsbetween 1-5 March 1999, 15 of the 17 references to thiswere direct statements by journalists. For example:Newscaster: This is Sky News, the headlines. Uganda hasvowed to hunt down and kill the Rwandan rebels whobludgeoned to death 8 tourists, including 4 Britons. SkyNews 1818)Newscaster: Among the shaken survivors today, therewere accounts of how tourists were hacked to death afterthe gang had separated the British and Americans fromamong them. (2.3.99 BBC2 2230-2315; our italics)The phrase ‘murdered in cold blood’ frequentlyappears in direct statements on Channel 5, BBC1 andBBC2. BBC1 for example, carried this headline:Newscaster (Repeat of headlines at end of news): Eighttourists, four of them British have been murdered inUganda. Hutu rebels from Rwanda crossed the border,rounded up tourists and killed them in cold blood. BBC12100-2130)On Sky News, the incident became known as the‘Ugandan jungle massacre’ and ‘slaughter in the jungle’and their abductors, the ‘safari slaughterers’. Theircaptions read ‘Holiday Massacre’ and ‘Tourist Massacre’.On Channel 4 ‘the details’ were described as ‘almost toohorrific to contemplate’ (2.3.99 Channel 4 1900-1950).On ITN headlines which declared ‘safari park massacre’and ‘horror stories from the jungle,’ were juxtaposedwith accounts on BBC2 which described ‘the grotesqueway in which some were chosen for death by machete’(2.3.99 BBC2 2230-2315).There were a further 41 references to the ‘brutality’,‘ruthless’, ‘terrifying’ ‘savagery’ of the ‘slaughter’; 36 ofthese were direct statements by journalists. It wasdescribed as a ‘rather grisly, hideous publicity stunt,’ byone reporter (2.3.99 BBC1 1800-1830). Another reporton Sky News referred to rivalry in the investigation thatfollowed, between the local Ugandan authorities and theBritish CID who were being flown over to assist in theinquiry. Sky News described how it was turning into an‘undeclared bush war’ (5.3.99 Sky News 1838). The‘ruthlessness’ of the crime and condemnation of theattack by the Prime Minister who denounced it as an actof ‘wickedness’ are set out against the shocked accountsof survivors.C.2.3.2. Responses to the crisisWhen the news broke that Western tourists had beenmurdered in Uganda, discussion quickly moved to reviewwhat actions were being taken to resolve the crisis in theshort-term and vows by the President of Uganda, ‘thatthe rebels who slaughtered eight tourists will be capturedor killed’ and that troops had already begun to pursuethe killers through the jungle. This was a main theme ofthe news coverage with 234 references. For example:Newscaster: The Ugandan President, Yoweri Musevenihas vowed to capture dead or alive, the gang responsiblefor murdering eight Western tourists. His troops arepursuing the killers, thought to be Rwandan Hutu rebels,over the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo.(3.3.99 BBC1 1800-1830)Some reports on Sky News and Channel 4 exploredhow the Ugandan response was a battle for publicopinion emanating from the fact that it was a ‘globalstory’. For example:Reporter: the battle at the moment is for the world’s publicopinion, this is very much a global story simply because ofthe number of nationalities involved, the world’s media ishere and tomorrow representatives of the media are beinginvited by the military to be helicoptered down to thatregion, to show exactly what they’re doing, howdetermined they are to try to track down the killers and tomake the national park safe again, but I think that is verymuch a battle for public opinion as I say and to try to repairsome of the devastation that has been done to Uganda’sonce promising tourist industry. (2.3.99 Sky News 1800-1808)By 4 March, consideration of their actions had movedfrom criticism of their failure to prevent the attack totheir response and suggestions that efforts to pursue thekillers were a PR stunt:Charles Obbo, Editor, The Monitor: I think they areunder a lot of pressure to show that they are doingsomething, but my own point is that most of that is PR. Ifthey don’t tackle the broader regional issues, if they do notresolve the various conflicts in the region, it won’t make adifference, they are just cracking the surface, we will haveanother attack in another part of the country, only adifferent tally and the casualties will be higher. (4.3.99Channel 4 1900-1955)The Ugandan government was heavily criticised forfailing to prevent the crisis. Criticisms mainly occurredon ITN (8 references), Sky News (7 references), Channel 4(6 references) and BBC1 (5 references). ITN in particularfocused on allegations that warnings which could haveprevented the massacre, were not passed on. These wereDFID – July 2000 47