Monthly Archives: December 2007

Blogger Edwin Greenwood‘s not just bothered about BBC illiteracy. He’s not sure why the BBC describe the foreign nationals held at Gitmo as ‘UK men’ or ‘Britains’.

And who are these people to deserve the name of Britons anyway? Assorted so-called refugees from the Maghreb and the Middle East with apparent connections to people who want to kill us. Britons? Do me a favour!

Mr Greenwood obviously has access to a better news service than I can find. This new BBC story tells us that Shaker Aamer (who according to his lawyer was dying in January 2006) is a Saudi and that an Abyssinian, one al Habashi, remains banged up in Gitmo. But as I search the BBC stories :

for details of the nationalities of ‘UK men’ Jamil el-Banna, Omar Deghayes and Abdenour Samuer, I learn about their children and how they long to be ‘home’ for Eid, but nothing about their nationality.

In other BBC stories, “Concerns over Sudanese woman“.

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated.

according to the Times.
Bear in mind that the trial is still continuing. Innocent until proven guilty, and all that. In any case the most damaging aspect of this story to the BBC is not the paintballing. The worst that happened there is that they were fooled. No, the most shocking thing is this:

Nasreen Suleaman, a researcher on the programme, told the court that Mr Hamid, 50, contacted her after the July 2005 attack and told her of his association with the bombers. But she said that she felt no obligation to contact the police with this information. Ms Suleaman said that she informed senior BBC managers but was not told to contact the police.

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated.

didn’t go down as well at the CBI as he went down in Downing Street with Gordon Brown.

Thank you to an anonymous reader for the link.

BBC: “Labour peers visit UK teacher Gillian Gibbons in custody in Sudan” – Doh!

As you can see, the two peers (and there were only two) on the diplomatic mission seeking Gillian Gibbons release from Sudanese ‘justice’, are the Labour peer Lord Ahmed and the Conservative peer, Baroness Warsi, yet for some reason, our Beeboid friends natural assumption is that both are Labour peers. Why is that?

This lazy assumption on the part of the Beeboids responsible smacks of the patronising leftie presumption that Muslim must equal Labour – there can be no other explanation for cocking up such a basic and easily checkable fact – but did the Beeboids bother? (And would anyone who is interested in current affairs, let alone a supposedly professional BBC journalist, really not know that Baroness Warsi is a Conservative?). No, they got straight on with bigging up the supposedly Labour credentials of the two peers in the delegation.

This stupidity wasn’t limited to BBC Views Online – according to Biased BBC readers it also featured in reports on Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live on Saturday afternoon… surely someone at the BBC should have noticed this huge smacking error before such nonsense made it on air?

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may be moderated.

about Adam Mynott’s shoddy report and two-way on the BBC Six O’Clock News, here’s a transcript of what was said, and video of the start of the Six, complete with textual annotations:

Sian: Good evening, and welcome to the Six O’Clock News. The British teacher, Gillian Gibbons, imprisoned in Sudan for letting her children call a teddy bear Mohammed, has been moved to another jail for her own safety, that’s according to her lawyer. Around a thousand protestors have been demonstrating against her fifteen-day sentence, calling it too lenient. Some have even said she should be executed.

Ben: Tonight there is a glimmer of hope for Gillian Gibbons, the Labour peer, Lord Ahmed, is on his way to Sudan to try to press for her early release. He’s leading a private delegation, which is expected to meet the Sudanese president. Our correspondent Adam Mynott, is in Khartoum for us tonight, Adam…

Adam: Ben, yes, Gillian Gibbons first day serving her sentence for insulting islam by allowing her school children to name a teddy bear islam, eh, to name a teddy bear Mohammed, I beg your pardon, er, has been, er, a day of, er, silence from the Sudanese authorities here and the British, but a day of noise and anger on the streets of Khartoum.

Fluffed lines Adam? That’s the trouble with ‘going live! We then cut to Adam’s filmed report:

Adam: Insults to islam in Sudan cannot go unpunished and unprotested, and hundreds poured out of Friday prayers in Khartoum to vent their anger on the streets.

Apoplectic man: We cannot accept it from anybody. If they can do it in Europe, they cannot do it here in Sudan.

Adam: But this was, for the most part, a good natured protest.

Good natured? What was all that angry ranting and waving of machetes and swords we saw about then?

Banners were waved and sticks shaken, but the smiling faces showed this was not a furious outpouring of anger.

Emphasis from the original. Smiling faces? Not Angry? What about those swords and machetes Adam? What about the angry shouting and mob tension we saw? You were there, weren’t you?

However, there’s no question that some had been offended by Gillian Gibbons insensitivity

Gillian Gibbons insensitivity? How about ‘perceived insensitivity’? Or, more accurately, ‘islamic hyper sensitivity’?

Angry youth: Our prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, we love him very much, and we have a big, uh, great red line in talking about him…

Red lines? An interesting choice of idiom. I wonder where he picked that up.

Adam: And she crossed the red line?

Ah, could’ve been from Adam…

Angry youth: Yes, yes.

Adam: Most people in Khartoum were not up in arms. The court case has not received much media coverage, many had heard little of it, and some Sudanese even felt the prosecution of the 54-year old school teacher had been an over reaction.

Considerable diplomatic pressure is still being applied by Britain on the Sudanese government here in Khartoum, and I understand that the British authorities feel that there is still room for a compromise where Gillian Gibbons can be released ahead of serving her full fifteen day sentence.

The street protest lasted a full two hours, and it dissolved as quickly as it had started. It had the look of an orchestrated, almost theatrical event, as the streets echoed to the sounds of public demonstration [Audio of angry ranting inset]…

A theatrical event, ‘almost’ – with that ‘almost’ covering a multitude of spins.

Adam: Gillian Gibbons began her term in an overcrowded women’s jail in the capital, but it’s understood she’s now been moved to another location.

We then cut back to Adam, live:

Adam: And we understand, according to sources here, that she was moved for her own safety, and we’ve also heard tonight that diplomatic pressure has been ratcheted up a notch with the news that Lord Ahmed is leading a parliamentary delegation to Britain, which has set off. Back to you Ben in London.

Ben: Okay Adam, many thanks.

Curiously, the BBC Ten O’Clock News report of the same past events took a quite different line. Mynott’s report was thoroughly remixed, complete with previously unseen footage and audio and the lame Mynott two-way was dispensed with, in favour of a more rigourous analysis from Frank Gardner in the studio, revealing along the way that Lord Ahmed’s group also includes Baroness Warsi, the Conservative peer – an interesting fact entirely omitted from the Six. Here’s a clip of the relevant part of the Ten O’Clock News: