Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 February 1991.
While fully appreciating the difficulties experienced by journalists in Baghdad in reporting the situation out there, does my right hon. Friend agree that the report on the "Today" programme from a BBC journalist who talked about the allied forces perpetrating five hours of bombing was disgraceful? According to the Oxford English dictionary the definition of "perpetrate" is to commit a crime, a blunder or something outrageous. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that report was nothing short of disgraceful and that such reporting does nothing to help the morale of our people here or in the Gulf?