OUTSPOKEN Kent MP Roger Gale has criticised the blanket television coverage of the war in Iraq.

Mr Gale, the Conservative member for Thanet North, insists the coverage of the war is "trivialising" the conflict.

He stressed: "I do not question the courage or the determination of reporters covering the war, but many people are beginning to find the soap-opera style wall-to-wall coverage on most television and radio channels unacceptable.

“This media saturation has led, in a bid to be "first with the news", to speculative and unsubstantiated reports being broadcast. The perpetual commentary by armchair warriors far from the scene of action is undesirable.

"I detect a very real concern that reporting may pose a security risk and that it may also cause distress to those families with serving personnel in the field.

“What is needed is as much normality as possible with appropriate, substantiated and confirmed reports at appropriate times. We need to remember that this is not an extension of the soap-opera culture but a real war in which real troops and real civilians are being killed."

He added: “Each and every person killed is somebody's son, somebody's husband, somebody's father and to those families it is the most devastating news that they will ever have to face."

Mr Gale was himself a journalist and broadcaster before entering the House of Commons.