Talking of Oliver Kamm, he has posted on the Newsnight “Allies on Trial” show. The writer and broadcaster William Shawcross, having declined to participate, wrote to Mr Kamm, who continues the story thus:
William explained that, while he would be happy to be part of an investigation or discussion, he would not take part in a form of entertainment. I am glad to set down his reasoning, with his permission.
Newsnight has done important work in reporting many areas of the war in Iraq and the war on Islamist terror more widely. A ‘courtroom’ pastiche is a fashionable but frivolous conceit that detracts from that record of excellent and courageous reporting in Iraq by Mark Urban and other correspondents. The allegations about “rendition” need a thorough investigation and merit the closest attention of Newsnight, but a ‘trial’ will do nothing in that regard. The name of the programme and the choice of counsel and witnesses suggest a spectacle more than an analysis. It is especially unfortunate that the ‘trial’ should be scheduled when a British hostage is threatened with death by real criminals in Iraq, and on the eve of the most important election that Iraq (and perhaps any Arab country) has ever had. One has to assume that the timing is deliberate; its effect will be to detract from the sacrifice of British and other forces in Iraq, and belittle the heroism of the Iraqi people in seeking to create a civil society in a nation ravaged by tyranny.
Kamm writes that he is “frequently a defender of the BBC against allegations – which I think are mistaken and miss the real criticism of its approach – of political bias.” You will not be too suprised to learn that I disagree. But the points he and Shawcross make about this programme hit the mark.
For those of you interested, William Shawcross has an article published in “The Spectator” entitled ” The best -v- the worst”. Subject the premature pull-out from Iraq.
(No advertising intended)
Web Site
http://www.williamshawcross.com/first_page.html
living in Israel, we get the BBC world TV. This morning, 15 XII 2005, we were outraged to hear the following. I do not agree with this post or the previous one that the BBC is improving. It seems to me like the same old lies. Here is my message of complaint to the bbc:
15 XII 2005,
This morning on BBC TV from Ramallah, one of your hacks referred to Marwan Barghouti. He said that Barghouti was in jail in Israel because of “attacks against Israelis.” This is a repulsive evasion of the truth. Barghouti is in jail on five counts of murder. Actually he was involved in 32 counts of murder, but the court said that in 27 cases the evidence was not clear enough. So he was convicted by a rigorous court decision on five counts of murder. But your pro-PLO propagandist in Ramallah did not want to say “murder”; he did not want to tell the truth about this human dog barghouti. You should be ashamed of the lies that you tell.
I see that the barghouti falsification is mentioned on a previous post and in comments
Thanx
Here is my complaint message to the BBC. By the way, I read the court judgement/sentence in Hebrew of barghouti
15 XII 2005,
This morning on BBC TV from Ramallah, one of your hacks referred to Marwan Barghouti. He said that Barghouti was in jail in Israel because of “attacks against Israelis.” This is a repulsive evasion of the truth. Barghouti is in jail on five counts of murder. Actually he was involved in 32 counts of murder, but the court said that in 27 cases the evidence was not clear enough. So he was convicted by a rigorous court decision on five counts of murder. But your pro-PLO propagandist in Ramallah did not want to say “murder”; he did not want to tell the truth about this human dog barghouti. You should be ashamed of the lies that you tell.
Eliyahu, yes, they portray Barghouti as some kind of noble warrior when in fact he’s the lowest of the low – a terrorist murderer of innocents.
And the fact that the Palestinians can hero-worship this ‘leader’ and vote for him in their thousands speaks volumes about who the Palestinians are.
At 6pm CNN Europe led with todays Iraq elections and had in depth coverage when the BBC was leading with a London murder case. The CNN coverage was extensive, while the 2 minutes from the BBC reporter in Iraq had her reporting through clenched teeth, ” I HAVE to say the elections were peaceful UNLIKE the last one when there were 9 suicide attacks”.
Aaaaah, harking back to the glory days when you could rub the coalitions nose in the dirt. However with an insurgency casualty rate of 100% for a suicide mission it’s to be expected.
The 10 o’clock BBC News did lead withe Iraq elections. (Shamed into it perhaps?)
In the CNN report the deputy American ambassador in Baghdad expounded on ALL the good news, one snippet, the Iraq GDP is expected to grow at 4% next year, while back in the UK Gordon ( King Con) Brown admits we will be lucky to hit 1.75%.
The 10 o’clock BBC News did lead withe Iraq elections. (Shamed into it perhaps?)
Presumably the 6’O’clock News is for the Bush-Bashers but they are in bed or totally stoned by 10 O’Clock so the grown-ups can watch
NEWSNIGHT EDITOR, PETER BARRON responds by email to criticism of the Newsnight “Allies on Trial”
He heads his email “NEWSNIGHT ON TRIAL” (the poor persecuted dears)
There were but a few complaints to the programme & he swats them away, e.g.
“What was the BBC doing giving airtime to a man who was a suspected
terrorist? I thought this was entirely unacceptable.”
Moazzam Begg, who appeared as a witness on the programme, was held at
Guantanamo Bay, but has not been convicted of any crime related to
terror.
He maintains that he was a victim of illegal torture by the US, and that
was one of the questions raised by the programme.
So I guess we must believe whatever Begg says.
Barron, in keeping with the BBC stance, sees Islamic terrorism only as a criminal justice matter & if someone is not processed under normal criminal justice procedures (to permit progress to trial), we must regard them as beyond reproach.