Author Archives: Laban

When the Government …

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… desperately trying to think of ways to promote social cohesion, comes up with the (IMHO idiotic) idea of a loyalty oath, what broad cross-section of Brits do the BBC canvass for their views ?

A union leader, a republican pressure group (which I’ve never previously heard of), and a left-wing Labour peer.

(Oh, and something called “the Scottish Government” – Alex Salmond’s rebranding of the legal entity called the Scottish Executive. There is still only one government in the United Kingdom, but there’s an iron BBC law. When an organisation of which you approve rebrands itself, accept its self-redefinition uncritically, repeating and reinforcing it. I’m thinking of the “crime reduction charity” formerly known as the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders).

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Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic Part 328

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(follow-up to this post and this post)

At Harry’s Place (and in the BBBC comments – apologies – Ritter was there first !) they’ve been taking a look at the BBC editorial guidelines.

The Terrorism Act 2000

We have a legal obligation under the Terrorism Act 2000 to disclose to the police, as soon as reasonably practicable, any information which we know or believe might be of material assistance in:

preventing the commission of an act of terrorism anywhere in the world.

securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of a person in the UK, for an offence involving the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism.

It is a criminal offence not to disclose such information, punishable by up to 5 years in prison. Any situation where BBC staff may be in potential breach of the Terrorism Act must be referred to Controller Editorial Policy and Programme Legal Advice.

I’m not sure how that squares with 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.

This prima facie looks very bad for someone – but if Ms Suleaman reported to the “Controller Editorial Policy and Programme Legal Advice” I’d say she was in the clear as far as following the Beeb guidelines was concerned. Who did she report to ? And did the BBC tell the police ?

(From the HP comments – producer Phil Rees, who now works for Al-Jazeera, gave a C4 news interview claiming that the conviction of “Osama bin London” meant that it was now illegal to criticise British foreign policy. And the video of “Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic” appears to have vanished from the BBC site)

More on Phil Rees, who doesn’t believe there’s such a thing as a terrorist. You can see why the BBC commission so much stuff from him.

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Missing, presumed dead – the line between BBC “reporting” and Labour Party editorial

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I won’t attempt to take issue here with the morality or practicality of Labour AM Christine Chapman’s campaign to abolish prostitution by criminalising the evil customers and ignoring the poor victim-of-society dealers – except to point out a marked contrast with a drugs policy which ignores the poor victim-of-society customers and focuses on the evil dealers. She’s perfectly entitled to her views.

The Guardian’s Nick Davies, a brilliant reporter (although IMHO a lousy analyst of what he reports) has recently published Flat Earth News, in which he suggests that news stories increasingly consist of regurgitated stuff provided by third parties. I think even he’d be gobsmacked by the platform Ms Chapman’s been given – a BBC “news” article which is a straight political piece by the Labour AM.

Only last week a Scottish assembly member, the SNP Justice Minister no less, was given a similar platform to explain how the public would be protected by a tough new policy of not sending criminals to prison. Somehow I missed the “balancing” pieces – which I’m sure the BBC published.

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A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed

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You’re a Justice Minister in one of the most violent countries in the developed world. The prisons are full AND the budgets are tight, so you need to start sending fewer people down. But your stupid voters, brainwashed by the punitive tabloids, won’t like it one little bit. Telling them they’re stupid is bad PR. How can you spin it to avoid “Thugs free to walk streets” headlines ?

You need to find a company who can market it to the stupid voters as “cutting reoffending rates”. But where can such a company be found ?

“There’s a firm at Pacific Quay in Glasgow who’ll do it for free!”

And so there was.

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Britains Never Never Never shall Be Slaves

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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 :

UK four to be released
US concerns over UK men
UK seeks release of five men

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“.

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Climb Every Mountain ….

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Or not, as the case may be.

For Griff Rhys Jones, it was a high point of his television career. He had scaled the tallest mountain in Britain, the cameras rolling all the while, and last night he learnt that he had won a coveted Scottish Bafta award for the resultant series, Mountain.

But even as the series was receiving the plaudits of the critics, doubts were beginning to surface in the climbing world. Mountain had won the category of Best Factual Entertainment Programme — but one mountaineering expert commented last night: “Entertainment, certainly — but factual?”

Did Rhys Jones actually get to the top of Ben Nevis? Or was this another of the BBC’s minor deceptions, along with all the other controversies such as fake phone-ins, the naming of the Blue Peter cat and the trailer that wrongly claimed to show the Queen storming out of a photo shoot?

The BBC does seem to be making a habit of this sort of thing.

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