Duty calls

In my ongoing series of "guess what? The military lies", Deutsche Welle reports on interesting times in Germany:

"The German ministry of defence has admitted that it is carrying out an internal inquiry into the possible extracting of information on suspected terrorists by Bundeswehr operatives posing as journalists in Bosnia.

"The confirmation of an inquiry on Wednesday, reported in the German media on Thursday, follows allegations that German soldiers attached to the United Nations mission in Bosnia had operated outside official army regulations and interviewed members of the public under a pretence."

It is imperative that journalists remember their first duty - to tell the truth. As Robert Fisk says in the introduction to his new book, "The Great War for Civilisation":

"[Journalists should] challenge authority - all authority - especially so when governments and politicians take us to war, when they have decided that they will kill and others will die."