The body vanishes ‐photojournalism in the Gulf War

Abstract

A notable feature of British press coverage of this war was the absence of dead bodies. This resulted from a convergence of interests among the allies: governments and military forces were anxious to emphasise the role of technology, and the press already restrained itself from depicting corpses as part of its normal practice of self‐censorship. In contrast, Saddam Hussein attempted to insert death into the story. These attempts were reworked by the press and rebounded on Saddam, justifying his representation as the Hitler of the Middle East and the epitome of the untrustworthy, cruel Arab.