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Arab Press Coverage of Beheading Varies

(New York Times) - The videotaped beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg by Islamic militants received widely divergent treatment in the Arab press on Wednesday. A Kuwaiti paper, Al Siyassah al Kuwaitia, ran a front-page story with a photograph of one of the militants holding up Mr. Berg's head. A Lebanese newspaper, As Safir, published its front-page report with a headline reading, "Zarqawi Slaughters an American to Avenge Iraqi Prisoners." However, a journalism expert in Cairo said concern about protecting Americans from copycat killings was the main reason for the scant coverage in the Egyptian press. "The government does not want to incite or give ideas to young or extremist people to start taking matters into their own hands," said Hussein Amin of the American University in Cairo. Some Muslim groups in Egypt expressed regret that the killing eclipsed the pictures of abuse at Abu Ghraib.
2004-05-12 00:00:00
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