UK journalist denounces Western media role in Mideast

In his speech "State of Denial: Western Journalism in the Middle East" at the Georgetown's Center for International and Regional Studies, Fisk claimed that members of the Western media have "an osmotic and parasitic" relationship with the Western powers.

Using numerous historical arguments, Fisk said "journalists need not present both sides of the story when one side has been unjustly persecuted by the other."

Fisk, holding justice as one of his main points, argued it was justice, and not democracy or any other concept or idea, that the people of countries such as Iraq and Palestine really desired.

Although certain Western influences had a positive part to play in the Middle East, he said, the military involvement of their forces was "neither wanted nor justified."

Having had an illustrious career working for The Independent as a foreign correspondent in many of the most bloody and tragic conflicts, Fisk has often spoken out and defended victims who would otherwise have gone unmentioned.

Fisk is the only renowned Western journalist to have interviewed Osama bin Laden -- something he has done three times.

(Agencies)