Investigative Journalism has its limits, Media Must realize.
Story:
The BBC risked the lives of students by using them as a ‘human shield’ for a controversial Panorama journalist and his film crew, it was claimed yesterday.
The undercover team travelled with ten students from the London School of Economics to North Korea last month. Had the journalists been discovered, the whole group would have faced arrest, interrogation and possible detention.
Parents and university officials claim the students – the youngest of whom was only 18 – were ‘deliberately misled’ by the BBC and have called on the broadcaster to apologise and drop the Panorama documentary, due to be aired tonight.
The students were invited on the trip via an LSE club, only to learn much later it had been organised by Panorama as a cover for its investigation.
Journalist John Sweeney insisted the students had all agreed to enter the rogue Communist state with him, but admitted he withheld some details of the trip on the advice of BBC risk assessors.
The LSE said its students were not given enough information to give their consent and accused the BBC of taking unacceptable risks at a time when sabre-rattling by North Korea had already raised tensions with the West.
Alex Peters-Day, general secretary of LSE Students’ Union said students and the university had been ‘manipulated’.
‘I think the trip was organised by the BBC as a ruse to get into North Korea and that’s disgraceful,’ she said. ‘They have used students essentially as a human shield in this situation.’
Three of the students have complained, the university says. One said they were not told about key details of the subterfuge until en route for Pyongyang.
Students have since received ‘threatening’ letters from North Korean authorities and one parent has complained in writing to new BBC director-general Lord Hall that their child was put in danger.
The parent wrote: ‘The methods adopted potentially endangered a number of students who believed they were participating in an organised student tour. I am outraged that in this case the BBC, without obtaining “informed consent”… deceived, used and endangered these students to obtain a story from North Korea.’
The row could prove embarrassing for Lord Hall, appointed after his predecessor George Entwistle quit in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal and the botched Newsnight report which led to Lord McAlpine being wrongly identified as a paedophile.
A producer for Panorama resigned earlier this month over claims the programme tried to bribe a security consultant to reveal information about a property developer.
The LSE said it was not given any warning about the BBC’s plans until last week, after the group returned. It said the deception had put the students in danger and had jeopardised the safety of its academics working in other high-risk countries.
The students volunteered for the trip through the Grimshaw Club, a student society linked to the LSE’s department of international relations. Sweeney’s wife Tomiko Newson, an LSE graduate, had organised a group tour of North Korea with the club in 2012 and students were told she was organising this year’s trip.
A senior BBC executive said that it was worth risking students’ lives by sending an undercover reporter with them on a trip to North Korea for a controversial documentary.
Ceri Thomas, the corporation’s head of news planning, said the decision to go ahead with the airing of tonight’s programme went ‘right to the top’ as he rejected claims that students from the London School of Economics had been forced in to taking unacceptable risks during the investigation.
Yesterday it was claimed that the corporation used the students as a ‘human shield’ for a Panorama journalist and his film crew.
Through twists and turns right from Bandaranaike to Jayawardene ,Chandrika Kumaratunga, Premadasa to Rakapakshe the ethnic cleansing remain unabated,
History of Ethnic cleansing.
Jayaprakash Sittampalam Tissainayagam during his arrest in 2008. Tissainayagam was a Tamil journalist and writer specialising in the longstanding conflict between the Sinhala and Tamils in Sri Lanka and was a vocal exponent against the Sri Lankan government. On March 7th 2008, he was arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division of the Sri Lanka Police, held for 6 months without charge and finally sentenced to 20 years hard labor. Due to the international outcry over the ethnic cleansing undertaken on the island by the Rajapaksa regime, and his sentence being overturned at the court of appeal, he was released on 11th January 2010. In a move typical of the public relations element of the Rajapaksa government, the journalist was then pardoned by Rajapaksa on May 3rd 2010.
In this typical scene witnessed regularly throughout history, large migrations of civilians are seen fleeing nationalist violence in a desperate attempt to escape death. This type of migration had been a pre-planned element in the Rajapaksa nationalist doctrine and came about as a direct result of an upswing in military weapons supply and financial funding from China and the United States.
Since Sri Lanka gained independence from Britain in 1948, relations between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamil communities have been strained. Rising ethnic and political tensions, along with ethnic riots and pogroms in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983, led to the formation and strengthening of militant groups advocating independence for Tamils. The ensuing Sri Lankan Civil War has resulted in the deaths of more than 70,000 people and the forced disappearance of thousands of others.
One-third of Sri Lankan Tamils now live outside Sri Lanka. While there was significant migration during the British colonial period, the civil war that began in 1983 led to more than 800,000 Tamils being forced from their homes within Sri Lanka, and many have left the country for destinations such as Canada, India and Europe.
Genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka
Estimates varying from less than 10000,[16] to 40,000 Sri Lankan Tamils were reportedly killed in the final weeks of the military victory over Tamil rebels in 2009 as the Tamil Tigers took Tamil civilians as human shields, according to the UN,[17] but the end of the civil war has not improved conditions in Sri Lanka,[18] with press freedom not being restored[19] and judiciary coming under political control.[20] Sri Lankan Tamils continue to seek refuge in countries like Canada and Australia.[21][22] The International Organisation for Migration and the Australian government have declared Tamil refugees as economic migrants.[23] Canada has tightened controls on their refugee program due to various abuses within the Canadian refugee system..[24] A Canadian government survey found that over 70% of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees have gone back to Sri Lanka for holidays raising concerns over the legitimacy of their refugee claims.[25](Wiki)
Despite denials the evidence is there for every one to see from Politicians , Bureaucrats and people on the ground.
The Rhetoric of Ethnic cleansing.
As the policy of ethnic cleansing came to its logical military conclusion, Tamils found themselves locked into concentration camps on the island and subject to sexual violence and organised abuse by prison guards. Only through the international public community were some of these people eventually allowed to leave, many having gone into crippling poverty.
Mass Killing of Tamils in Sri Lanka
The rhetoric of extremism in the globalised security environment that now exists is surprisingly malformed, and equally surprisingly influential. In Sri Lanka, the operation to bring about the ethnic cleansing of the Tamils was initially formed around a humanitarian interventionist pole8 alongside a domestic security intention. This initial rhetoric was criticised at the time as being ‘unlikely’ but due to the globalised posture of governments and media around the world in the post 9/11 event phase, the narrative unusually succeeded in its efforts.
In the 2008 video below, this rhetoric can be seen with a BBC interview carried out with a Sri Lankan government employee, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha [Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process (SCOPP)]. In this interview, the scope of the nationalist policy against the Tamils can be seen in its formation alongside the belligerence of the British Broadcasting Corporation as it existed at the time.
Proof.
In this second interview again for the BBC conducted in 2011 after the full weight of the ethnic cleansing had become known across the world, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha in his capacity as government coordinator of the peace process, routinely defaults to defending the nationalist regime of Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka and further continues to disrupt and retard the interviewers questioning about the massacre in Sri Lanka. He calls into question the motives of the ‘human rights industry’, disambiguates unambiguous questioning given by the interviewer, persistently derails and deviates away from line of enquiry and promotes and demotes salient information in order to evade complicity. This approach is almost identical to his motif in the first interview and reveals persuasive evidence of government rhetoric taking on academic form.
Evasion
For many around the world, the efficacy of international law is far from straightforward and given to inherent subjectivity. In an age in which human rights abuses abound throughout all the political environments of the world, justice for those who have been subject to ethnic violence is a long and arduous process with varying chance of realistic success. No matter what weight of evidence exists, no matter how clean the case for prosecution, no matter how ‘persuasive’ the charge given that evidence, international law for many abruptly halts when in collision with the largest of its sponsors. This is undoubtedly true.
For those in Rajapaksa’s regime, international law is a relative device that can be evaded, but only with considerable prior planning and foresight. For the most part, the personal ideology of Rajapaksa in the form of his own strident nationalism has simply arrived at an end point having reached its logical conclusion. There is evidence that Rajapaksa has been a long-time advocate10of nationalist ideology and his appearance at this point in time simply denotes a man who has seen his time come. It is here, that the fundamental nature of the war against the non-state actor, also known as the so called ‘War on Terror’ is revealed for what it is, a liberation for the tyrant…and a prison for his fool.
The rhetoric now engaged in by the Rajapaksa nationalists is one in which considerable faith has been placed in the United States, China and India. These three actors constitute the vast bulk of delegates to the United Nations and hold most influence at the International Criminal Court [ICC]. Rajapaksa and his brother Lieutenant Colonel Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have clearly made a calculated appraisal about their fortunes in relation to these three nations and have clearly concluded that Sri Lanka’s geo-strategic political position will successfully renovate international public opinion leading to a general failure of accountability at the UN.
2. Global Terrorism: 35,000 Worldwide Convicted For Terror Offenses Since September 11 Attacks by MARTHA MENDOZA [AP] 09/03/11 Huffingdon Post
3. Sri Lanka’s Eastern Provincial Council Convenes; Muslim-tamil Tensions High. US Embassy Colombo – 5th June 2008. Classified By: Charge d’Affaires James R. Moore for reasons: 1.4(b,d). Wikileaks
4. Sri Lanka War Crimes Evidence. WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT. YouTube
Armed robbers have made off with a “gigantic” haul of diamonds after a rapid raid at Brussels Airport.
They broke through a fence on Monday evening and stole gems which could be worth 50m euros (£43m; $67m), as they were being loaded from a Brinks security van onto a Swiss-bound plane.
They escaped back through the same hole. Police later found a burned-out vehicle close to the airport.
Police are looking for eight men, a prosecutors’ spokeswoman said.
Caroline De Wolf, of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, estimated the haul at 50m euros, saying: “What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum”.
AFP quoted an unnamed spokeswoman at the same Antwerp centre calling the robbery “one of the biggest” ever.
She said that the diamonds were “rough stones” being transported from Antwerp to Zurich.
Antwerp is the hub of the world diamond trade – about 150m euros’ worth of stones move in and out of the city every day, the spokeswoman added.
No shots
Brussels prosecutor’s spokeswoman Anja Bijnens said the thieves were masked and well armed, but no shots were fired and no-one was hurt in the raid.
They used two vehicles, the raid was over in a matter of minutes, and they made off into the night.
In the course of the morning further details of the heist emerged. At a news conference in Brussels public prosecutors told newsmen that the eight robbers had been kitted out in police uniforms. The gangsters trained their guns on several people during the heist.
The two black vehicles they were travelling in headed straight for the Swiss aircraft where security guards were stowing a valuable shipment in the hold.
The eight gangsters were dressed as police officers or were wearing clothes that closely resembled police uniforms. They travelled four per vehicle. Each vehicle was equipped with flashing police lights.
Guns were trained on the pilot, the co-pilot and a security guard. The gangsters were equipped with machine guns, but no shots were fired. None of the passengers were injured.
The gangsters proceeded to break open the doors leading to the hold. They stole at least 120 parcels. The stolen goods included a shipment of diamonds. Police are as yet refusing to put a value on this shipment.
The raid lasted no longer than 5 minutes. Prosecutors speak of a well-prepared and professional heist.
The gangsters had gained access to the airport by first making a hole in the fence between two containers.
Police recover burnt out delivery van
A delivery van that may have been used in the heist was recovered in Zellik (Flemish Brabant) in the course of the evening. Detectives are now examining the vehicle that was completely gutted by fire to determine whether it was used in the robbery and whether the robbers switched to a different vehicle in Zellik.
The stolen diamonds originated in Antwerp. Antwerp diamond sources value the shipment at 50 million dollars.
The Swiss airline has not yet responded to the robbery. It says that the police investigation is underway and that the company will await the outcome of the investigation before commenting.
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This is not the first occasion that a major shipment of diamonds has been stolen at Brussels Airport. In 2005 robbers got away with a large shipment of diamonds held by the couriers FedEx in the Brucargo freight section of the airport. In 2001 cash and securities were stolen from a Brink’s Ziegler money transport. Eighteen months earlier diamonds were stolen from a Lufthansa aircraft at Zaventem.
In 1995 securities were stolen from a Swissair aircraft that was ready for take-off, while in 1982 a security guard, Francis Zwarts, was attacked by gangsters wearing state police uniforms. The robbers got away with gold and jewelry. Francis Zwarts’s body was never found.”
“According to the BBC, more than 500,000 stamps are being printed out on special paper that gives off the aroma of chocolate. The glue melts on the tip of your tongue just like a piece of chocolate. The secret of Bpost’s tasty stamps lies in their varnish: It contains 40 percent of a cocoa product and was developed by an international team of fragrance and taste experts after a thorough research on scratch-and-sniff technologies.
The special stamps feature famous Belgian chocolate in its various delicious forms: sprinkles, chocolate, nutella, rough pieces and chocolate bars. This series of five stamps, intended for overseas mail, will cost about $8 when it goes on sale on March 25, according to Agence France-Presse.
“It is not the first scented stamp … but this time it has been combined with a flavor,” the Belgian postal service said, according to AFP.
When Jytoi Singh Pandey died in a gang rape case in Delhi, people rose in anger against this atrocity, correctly so.
In the frenzy the clamor descended into the Rights of Woman to dress as they please.
Many of the women who participated in the protests were over made up for a spontaneous reaction (with grief!) and wer bent on getting Media attention to the extent that a Girl had artificial Blood poured on her hands ,a woman bared her behind with a writing ‘Don’t rape Me”
Read my blog.
Indian Bollywood film actress Sherlyn Chopra Photo: AFP
This made an MP and the son of the President to decry that these women are ‘dented and painted’ causing an out cry in the media and he was pilloried.
Now in a land women activists protest vociferously against the us of women as Sex in advertisement films, are quiet for the opening of a Playboy Club in Goa and a Girl posing Nude in Playboy for the first time.
Look at what Girl has to say on this.
‘My sister is proud of my achievement. I haven’t told anything to my mother, but I think I will visit her and tell her that she has to accept me the way I am.” Critics have complained that the magazine has billed her as a Bollywood legend, despite only appearing in a handful of films and being best known for Bigg Boss, India‘s answer to Big Brother”
This is not ‘Painted and dented”?
“Sherlyn Chopra, 28, will appear in the November issue.
However, a series of teasing interviews has provoked a round of condemnation from women’s rights activists who accuse her of undermining the fight against sexual harassment and abuse.
Miss Chopra herself has admitted that she has not yet told her mother about the Playboy shoot.
“It is not an easy task to be nude in front of the camera and look good at the same time,” said Miss Chopra in an interview with the BBC’sHindi service.
She added that she had written to Playboy asking to model and received a response within days.
