Media trials and errors
Louise Christian
February 1, 2007 06:30 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/louise_christian/2007/02/post_1041.html
Once again, the arrests of people by police under the Terrorism Act
have been accompanied by stories in the media with a lot of detail
about them, what they are supposed to have done and their supposed
links to al-Qaida. None of the nine men arrested yesterday has been
charged with anything let alone brought to trial but still the media
is blatantly pre-judging the outcome. "Al-Qaida was behind plot to
behead soldier," screamed the Mail today while the Times headlined
with "How al-Qaida brought Baghdad to Birmingham". Unnamed senior
security sources are quoted everywhere as saying a plot by a "ruthless
gang" has been uncovered to kidnap and behead a Muslim soldier or if
they had not found one, a member of the public or anyone supposedly
"collaborating" with the police or government. The Mail even runs
detailed profiles of four of those arrested including details about
the medical condition of a child of one of them and at least two
names.
While it can be claimed that the Contempt of Court Act does not
actually bite until charges are brought, these reports are wholly
prejudicial and unfair, and constitute a direct threat to the rule of
law and the presumption of innocence. Time and again the attorney
general has failed to intervene or to warn the media against such
reporting even after charges are brought, yet it is his direct
responsibility to ensure contempt of court is not allowed. Lawyers
fear there is a downward spiral where the attorney never dares take
any action for fear that complaints about publicity made afterwards at
a trial may be validated by such action and risk upsetting the trial
and that the media now know that they can get away with pushing
further and further at the boundaries.
Ch=E1vez in charge
Richard Gott
February 1, 2007 07:01 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_gott/2007/02/gottvenezuela.html
Hugo Ch=E1vez is a man in a hurry, and this week's decision by the
Venezuelan national assembly to grant him additional powers
foreshadows the radical changes that are in the pipeline. President
for the past eight years, Ch=E1vez has only just begun to scratch the
surface of the gigantic revolutionary project that lies ahead. There
have been obvious successes. Unprecedented sums of oil money have been
diverted towards the country's poor majority, funding education and
health programmes, and providing cheap food. The results are already
on show. A freshly mobilised and alert population is beginning to flex
its muscles, taking part in political decision-making through a myriad
local councils and ad-hoc committees operating at many levels. Nothing
like this has happened in Latin America since the Cuban Revolution
nearly half a century ago. It is riveting stuff.
Yet all this energy and excitement has been channelled through new
institutions, financed directly by the oil revenues, and essentially
unmonitored. Again, this is a revolution in progress. At the same
time, much of the old, pre-revolutionary Venezuela still remains. The
country's traditional infrastructure is plagued by bureaucracy and
corruption, the twin-headed disease inherited from the Spanish
colonial era. Bureaucrats, and that means public servants in every
ministry and ancient state entity, exist to ensure that nothing ever
gets done, while corruption exists to lubricate their powers of
inaction. What is true of the state is true of private industry as
well. So this week's "enabling" legislation will give greater powers
to the executive at the expense of the legislature, with the hope that
Ch=E1vez will be able to push through some necessary changes. At some
stage, the new institutions and the old bureaucracies will have to be
merged.
Rush to judgment
Moazzam Begg
February 1, 2007 08:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/moazzam_begg/2007/02/post_1043.html
The recent terror raids at various locations in Birmingham seem to be
following a trend that has sadly become the acceptable norm in this
country: Details of alleged terror plots emerge to a public which will
inevitably provide jury members in any future potential trial. And all
of this is happening before any of suspects are charged with an
offence under the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 2000, under which
they are being held.
The sensationalism with which such operations are reported in the
media has now become all too common. There is little doubt about the
real need to challenge the real threats from terrorism in this
country, but the growing scepticism with which such headline-grabbing
plots are being met even has the police calling for a calm and
responsible approach. A lot of that has to do with the track record of
at least some of the high-profile cases: the ricin plot, in which
there was no ricin; the Forest Gate raids, where an innocent man was
shot; and, most disturbing of all, the killing of Jean-Charles de
Menezes. There have been scores of other arrests around the country
that have been widely reported. But little mention is made, as in the
majority of the cases, when people are released without charge.
Science forward, Bush backward
Nico Pitney
February 1, 2007 09:00 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/nico_pitney/2007/02/science_moves_forwa=
rd_bush_mov.html
President Bush has received some glowing praise for his recent
rhetorical flourish about climate change. He doesn't deserve it. The
substance of his energy proposals remains woeful even as scientific
opinion on catastrophic global warming inches towards unanimity.
Tomorrow, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is set
to release its latest authoritative report. The IPCC process is one to
behold, involving 2,500 scientists from over 120 countries
synthesizing data produced over a period of years and peer-reviewed by
more than 1,000 experts, including climate skeptics and
representatives from industry and government. "Only points that were
considered indisputable survived this process," one climate expert
notes. "This is a very conservative document - that's what makes it so
scary."
Europe's next move
Bronislaw Geremek
February 2, 2007 09:20 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/bronislaw_geremek/2007/02/europes_next_=
move.html
Ever since France and the Netherlands rejected the European Union's
proposed constitutional treaty, EU leaders have been busy pointing
fingers at each other, or blaming French and Dutch citizens for
misunderstanding the question they had been asked. But no amount of
finger-pointing can obscure the fact that, 50 years after the European
Community's creation, Europe badly needs a new political framework, if
not a new project, to shore up its unity.
To be sure, French and Dutch citizens did not respond to the question
that they were supposed to answer. Their vote was a protest against
globalisation, a rejection of the contemporary world, with its distant
and incomprehensible governing mechanisms. Like the anti-globalisation
movement, the new anti-Europeanism can be regarded as a demand for a
"different world" - in this case, an "alter-Europeanism".
A modern-day witch-hunt
Brendan O'Neill
February 2, 2007 10:30 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/brendan_oneill/2007/02/the_witchhunting=
_of_jade_goody.html
Heat magazine - the weekly glossy that thinks Posh getting a new "do"
is worthy of a three-page spread - is not normally the kind of journal
that offers an insight into contemporary Britain. Yet this week's
issue does precisely that. Its interview with Jade Goody, or "Jade
Baddie" as she has been rechristened since her outbursts on Celebrity
Big Brother, provides an unwittingly disturbing snapshot of how
intolerant and illiberal Britain has become under New Labour. Goody
has been hounded into hiding, and in the process separated from her
young children, by a liberal lynch mob made up of politicians,
journalists and "race experts". These modern witchfinders have found
her guilty of sinning against the new etiquette, and buried her alive
for it.
The interview makes for uncomfortable reading. In between "sobbing
uncontrollably", Goody tells how she has been moving from hotel to
hotel since leaving the Big Brother house two weeks ago. She has a
security guard with her 24/7 who doesn't let her answer the phone or
even order her own food. "I have to ask for everything," she says. She
cannot return home because one of her windows was smashed and she has
received death threats by phone and letter. She's currently separated
from her two children because, she says, "it's not fair to make them
stay in a cramped [hotel] room ... I need to find somewhere more
permanent so I can get their toys." Goody also reveals that her
grandparents have been receiving malicious phone calls and that her
mother has gone into hiding. Asked if she feels suicidal, she says: "I
thought maybe I should just disappear. That it would be better for
everyone if I just wasn't here. [Starts sobbing uncontrollably.]"
My left
Sunder Katwala
February 2, 2007 11:00 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sunder_katwala/2007/02/my_left.html
Nick Cohen doesn't really know what "the left" is.
He is admirably candid about it. "I use the left as a generalisation.
It is not an exact term because it is very hard to say what it means,
but you know the left when you see it, and there were times when it
felt like the right word. Overall, however I try to be specific", he
writes in a brief "note about terminology" at the start of his new
book, What's Left?
Globalisation is good for you
Merril Stevenson
February 2, 2007 11:45 AM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/merril_stevenson/2007/02/globalisation_=
is_good_for_you.html
The news out of Birmingham this week is grim indeed. If reports of an
alleged plot to kidnap and kill a British Muslim soldier, broadcasting
the events by internet, turn out to be well-founded, it marks a
relatively new and certainly gruesome development. Importing terrorist
tactics from Baghdad to Birmingham is, I suppose, a dark form of
"globalisation". It is certainly helping to give the other, economic,
sort - the increasing mobility of capital, goods and services, and
labour - a bad name.
But don't knock globalisation, for Britain owes much of its current
prosperity to it, as The Economist magazine points out this week. A
quarter-century ago, few would have expected British GDP per head to
be higher today than Germany's or France's, but so it is: Britain has
enjoyed the longest stretch of steady economic growth since the early
1970s.
The challenge remains
AC Grayling
February 2, 2007 12:29 PM
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/ac_grayling/2007/02/reply_to_bunting.ht=
ml
I asked Madeleine Bunting to name a single contribution to science
made by Christianity. She accepts with pleasure the magnificent
response of the many special-pleaders who responded on her behalf by
naming Christian (whether nominal or convinced) scientists, the
evolution of science in Christian (nominally or convinced) countries,
and the role of Christian institutions (and institutions under church
control: monasteries, universities).
I was in equal parts staggered and amused by this response, staggered
because it seemed astonishing to me that anyone would seriously think
it was not obvious that there were scientists who were (nominal or
convinced) Christians, that science developed in countries many of
which were (nominally or convinced) Christian countries, and so on,
and amused because in their triumphalist teaching of how to suck eggs
on this matter, the responders had so vastly missed the point of my
challenge, even when I clarified it for them. For obviously and
manifestly I did not ask Ms Bunting if there had even been Christian
scientists, or whether science had been pursued in Christian
countries. I challenged Ms Bunting to explain what Christianity, a
body of beliefs and doctrine about virgin birth, miracles,
resurrection of the dead, angels and archangels, voices from heaven,
stigmata, and all the rest of the superstitious paraphernalia, had
contributed to science.
Muslims are now getting the same treatment Jews had a century ago
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2004222,00.html
Today's anti-Muslim racism uncannily echoes earlier anti-semitism -
both minorities abused as an alien security threat
Maleiha Malik
Friday February 2, 2007
The Guardian
Migrants fleeing persecution and poverty settled with their children
in the East End of London. As believers in one God they were devoted
to their holy book, which contained strict religious laws, harsh
penalties and gender inequality. Some of them established separate
religious courts. The men wore dark clothes and had long beards; some
women covered their hair. A royal commission warned of the grave
dangers of self-segregation. Politicians said different religious
dress was a sign of separation. Some migrants were members of
extremist political groups. Others actively organised to overthrow the
established western political order. Campaigners against the migrants
carefully framed their arguments as objections to "alien extremists"
and not to a race or religion. A British cabinet minister said we were
facing a clash about civilisation: this was about values; a battle
between progress and "arrested development".
Passion alone won't rescue Colombia from its narco-economy stigma
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2004170,00.html
Thanks to the western appetite for cocaine, this stunningly beautiful
country has the tourist appeal of Afghanistan
Simon Jenkins in Cartagena
Friday February 2, 2007
The Guardian
At the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland I lunched with a
friend from the local tourist board. "Any good ideas today?" he would
laugh as another blast echoed round Belfast. How about an Armalite
shooting contest, or an Ian Paisley rally in the rain, or a tour of
the Royal Victoria hospital knee-surgery unit? His career, to put it
mildly, was on hold.
Similar thoughts occurred over lunch in Bogot=E1 with those promoting
Colombian tourism. Beset by media reports of warlordism, kidnapping
and narco crime, they seemed trapped in the image stakes somewhere
between Somalia and Afghanistan. There is only one guide to Colombia
in my bookshop (from the sainted Lonely Planet) against a dozen to
neighbouring Costa Rica and Brazil. But then how to sell a country
whose most famous son, Gabriel Garc=EDa M=E1rquez, depicts its political
default mode as massacre? Do you boast that Colombians kidnap better,
and twin Medell=EDn with Moss Side, or plead: why visit Kabul when you
can visit Cali?
As US power fades, it can't find friends to take on Iran
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2004169,00.html
Washington has exaggerated Tehran's capabilities and intentions in
Iraq. It is confused and frustrated
Jonathan Steele
Friday February 2, 2007
The Guardian
The shadowy outlines of a new US strategy towards Iran are exercising
diplomats and experts around the Middle East and in the west. The US
says Iranian personnel are training and arming anti-US forces inside
Iraq, and it will not hesitate to kill them. It is sending a second
aircraft carrier to the Gulf, doubling its force projection there. It
is calling on Europeans to tighten sanctions on Iran until Tehran
suspends its uranium enrichment programme.
Being Muslim is not a barrier to being British
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2004080,00.html
Most are well integrated, and don't live in bleak ghettoes cut off
from society, says Munira Mirza
Friday February 2, 2007
The Guardian
Inevitably, media coverage of the report Living Apart Together:
British Muslims and the Paradox of Multiculturalism, which I co-
authored, focused on its more alarming poll statistics. The Guardian
correctly reported that "support for sharia law, Islamic schools and
wearing the veil in public is significantly stronger among young
Muslims than their parents" (More young Muslims back sharia, says
poll, January 29).
However, the research revealed a broad diversity of opinions and
experiences within the most intensely scrutinised group in Britain.
One of our aims was to get past the sensationalist portrayal of
Muslims as "the problem" - either as terrorists or as victims of
Islamophobia.
Secrets of the dead
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2004196,00.html
More than 200,000 people died or vanished in Guatemala's civil war and
thousands are still executed by police and vigilantes every year. Now
secret state files detailing the atrocities are to be made public -
despite death threats from the security forces. Billy Briggs reports
Friday February 2, 2007
The Guardian
Wendy Mendez was nine years old when she last saw her mother Luz
alive. It was March 8 1984. The two of them were in police custody in
Guatemala City, and Wendy was being tortured. "They put my head in a
bucket of water and gave me electric shocks. I remember one of the
policemen laughing and saying to my mother, 'Look what we are doing to
your baby.'"
That time - the late 70s and early 80s - was the most violent period
of a civil war that went on for more than three decades in Guatemala
between leftist guerrillas and rightwing, military-backed governments.
It is a war that in many ways is still going on, despite the formal
peace signed in 1996; extrajudicial executions continue, and no one
has been brought to book for the atrocities that according to the
country's official postwar truth commission left more than 200,000
dead or "disappeared". This lack of accountability has meant that
hundreds of thousands of people like Wendy have never been able to
find out what happened to their relatives and friends. But that is
about to change.
Magazine plays to Japanese xenophobia
http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,2004646,00.html
Available in mainstream bookstores, magazine targets Iranians,
Chinese, Koreans and US servicemen
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Friday February 2, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
The recent release of a glossy magazine devoted to the foreign-led
crime wave supposedly gripping Japan has raised fears of a backlash
against the country's foreign community, just as experts are calling
for a relaxation of immigration laws to counter rapid population
decline.
Secret Files of Foreigners' Crimes, published by Eichi, contains more
than 100 pages of photographs, animation and articles that, if taken
at face value, would make most people think twice about venturing out
into the mean streets of Tokyo.
Watchdog attacks US swoop for bank secrets
http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,,2004172,00.html
Ian Traynor in Brussels
Friday February 2, 2007
The Guardian
Europe's main privacy watchdog yesterday said that the banking secrets
and rights of millions of people and businesses were being abused on a
massive scale by a clandestine programme giving US agencies access to
the information. It accused the EU's banks and financial authorities
of doing nothing to stop the breaches.
In a damning report on the covert transfer to US agencies of the
details of millions of financial transactions by EU citizens, Peter
Hustinx, the European Data Protection supervisor, accused the European
Central Bank of complicity in the system that has been used since 9/11
and which was deemed illegal by European data protection agencies two
months ago.
After 40 years, could the ice be melting on the Golan Heights?
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2208266.ece
It is one of the most contentious strips of land on the planet. But as
Donald Macintyre discovers, there are signs of a new willingness on
both sides to find a solution
Published: 02 February 2007
Najwa Hamsa Amasha, a widow with four grown-up children, cries briefly
as she remembers her last visit to the family home in Damascus 21
years ago. "When my mum saw us off, she said, 'Maybe it's the last
time I will see you'." Her late mother's premonition was right. She
has never been able to return since, not even for her mother's
funeral. The Syrian capital is just 20 miles to the north-west of this
Druze village in the foothills of the great snow-covered, 9,232ft peak
of Mt Hermon. But the geopolitics of the Middle East means it might as
well be on another planet.
Mrs Amasha, who came here in 1979 after marrying a man from the
village, is now permanently cut off from her native city by the border
between the territories controlled by the two most mutually hostile
neighbouring states in the region. Fringed by lethal minefields, Majd
el Shams is the northernmost village of the Golan Heights, the fertile
and famously beautiful 1,100sq km plateau which was seized from Syria
by Israel in the Six Day War, and which, almost 40 years later, stands
in the way of peace between Damascus and Jerusalem.
Shilpa tours the media with message of peace, love and self-promotion
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2208276.ece
By Jonathan Brown and Robert Verkaik
Published: 02 February 2007
The Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty continued to bask in the warm glow of
the publicity generated by the Celebrity Big Brother (CBB) row
yesterday as she called for her fans to take a stand against racism
around the world.
With meetings reportedly already scheduled over the next few weeks
with the Queen, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the actress warned in an
interview: "Racism does exist and something needs to be done about
it."
Joan Bakewell: A blow to the idea that knowledge is for all to share
http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_a_l/joan_bakewell/article220822=
0=2Eece
Cuts to the British Library threaten to do much more than pare away
excess fat
Published: 02 February 2007
Leonardo da Vinci was famously secretive about his work, encoding his
calculations and experiments for fear, presumably, of being ripped off
before he could offer them to his patron of the day. What goes on in
our own heads and in our own notebooks remains privately ours until we
choose to publish or otherwise offer for money the unique knowledge
that we possess.
But who then owns that knowledge? It's an issue of patents and
copyright constantly being re-examined as individuals of talent and
application need their work funded by universities, foundations and
other worthy institutions. I recall that in a moment of madness some
years ago, the BBC had the idea of laying claim to every programme
idea that passed through the heads of its short-term contract staff.
They were not free, it was suggested, to have a programme idea in the
months they worked for the Beeb, and then hawk it around the
marketplace the moment their contract was up. It was soon obvious
implementing such a notion would require something approaching brain
surgery to check out the thoughts of such cheating scallywags.
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