Letter: Fake shots fudge war reports

Your report about fake news programmes on German television ("Star reporter admits it was a load of Koblenz", 22 September) should inspire someone to expose the bogus footage fed to us by British television. Since Afghanistan in the Seventies, most war pictorial reporting has been posed - ie, faked. Anyone who has ever fired a rifle or a machine gun in anger can spot that. But can the average viewer or newspaper reader? Bearded or moustachioed warrior after warrior from Kabul to Kirkuk fire their weapons at nothing. Tanks manoeuvre meaninglessly and women and children are marshalled into pathetic poses. Photo opportunites have no place in wars where some poor mug is being killed or mutilated far from the photographers.

Jim Brunton

Edinburgh