PressEthic

Has anybody noticed the absence of media coverage regarding the Balkan War Trials? Try plugging Slobodan Milosevic into a Google news search. You'll probably come up with a little over 1100 recent articles about the former Yugoslav president. Conversely, enter Saddam Hussein into the same search engine and over 27,000 possible news stories are generated.

Remember that both these former leaders face very similar accusations of crimes against humanity and genocide in court; one before an international tribunal, the other before an Iraqi court of his own countrymen. Yet somehow, the media seems to have forgotten about the criminal tribunal of the man accused of coordinating the break-up of Yugoslavia and the savage atrocities that went with it. His trial, which began with intense media scrutiny in February 2002, has rolled on with little press attention, despite repeated attempts to delay the proceedings due to ongoing health problems.

This choice of coverage is in large part due to our ongoing war with Iraq and the Bush administration's efforts to capture the support the public. However, Milosevic's crimes are no less important than Hussein's. Why has it disappeared from the public's radar? What aspects of the policy landscape have changed that would render news coverage of Milosevic's trial less valuable to society? I don't have the answer to this, but it is something worth comparing in the months and years to come.