Comments (2)

1. Sam Langfield | from St Anne\'s WebsiteWednesday, 08 November at 21:51

   There was an interesting seminar last Friday, hosted by the Reuters Institute, on "the impact of the blogosphere". David Butler chaired, and Adam Boulton was the principal speaker. Shame you missed it, given this blog!

2. Sara and Nicholas Wood | Saturday, 16 June at 20:10

   With reference to Tony Blair’s speech to The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, June 12 2007 and his attack on “The Independent??? newspaper.
   Mr Blair seems to fear, subconsciously or consciously the public’s access to factual information on the internet or in newspapers.
   Newspapers alert the public to areas of interest. It is then possible, at the press of a button to read, for instance, in Hansard exactly what was said in Parliament at any time, or to refer back to old newspaper articles. It is also possible for anyone to leave information on various websites.
   The use of the internet.
   For example The Military Families Against War website [MFAW] published a letter I had written as “ Attorney General – Legality of the Iraq War.???
   This letter dated 28 December 2006 to the Attorney General made a detailed analysis of what the Attorney General said on the 7th March 2003 in a secret memo to the Prime Minister in contrast to the Attorney’s written answer to Parliament on the 17th March 2003 where he gave a legal justification for the war against Iraq without any of the caveats included in his secret memo. I cross referenced this to what Hans Blix was saying at the same time at the U.N.
   This analysis took months to prepare in consultation with lawyers.
   The danger of this publication for Mr Blair is its intention to show that the Attorney General and Mr Blair were lying to Parliament, the public and the Military, and that it could form a part of a prosecution case about causing, in 1945 Nuremberg Charter terms, that most dreadful human crime of all, “namely planning, preparation, initiation of a war of aggression???.
   False news put out by No 10.
   Regarding Mr Blair’s own attitude to the integrity of the press he should revisit BBC and Channel 4 Documentaries which show how his favourite newspaper, ‘The Sun’, handled the French President’s position and speech of 10 March 2003.
   This speech was extremely embarrassing to Blair as it stated a human point of view that war should always be the last resort as it brought death and misery, and that Mr Blix should be given a few more weeks to complete his task in looking for WMDs in Iraq.
   Mr Blair pretended that Mr Chirac had said that France would veto a second U.N. Resolution “come what may???. This was simply not true. Chirac had said he would veto the Resolution at that particular time but, if Hans Blix came back to the U.N. and said Saddam was not cooperating, then war was inevitable.
   The messages Mr Blair gave to ‘The Sun’ newspaper through his press officer Alistair Campbell were false messages. ‘The Sun’ on 21 February 2003 published a picture of President Chirac’s head attached to a worm’s body with the headline “Squirm worm, Wibbly Wobbly Chirac???. On 26 February 2003, the headline re Chirac was “Stop Squirming???. On 12th March 2003 the headline accused Chirac of being like “a cheap tart who puts price before principal???. The Prime Minister and Alistair Campbell expressed approval of ‘The Sun’s’ coverage.
   This followed similar headlines about the 45 minutes weapons claim in September 2002 Dossier:- “45 Minutes from attack,??? ‘Evening Standard’ 24 Sept 2002 . “ He’s Got em. Lets get him.??? “ Brits 45 Minutes from Doom???, ‘Sun’, 25 Sept 2002. “ Mad Saddam Ready to attack, 45 Minutes from a Chemical War,??? ‘Star’ 25 Sept 2002 “British servicemen and tourists in Cyprus could be annihilated by germ warfare missiles it was revealed yesterday.??? These claims were never denied by Downing Street, although they were known to be false, as the weapons referred to were battlefield weapons not long range missiles.
   In the case of Dr Kelly it was leaked by No.10 that he was a ‘minor bureaucrat’, ‘mentally unstable’, ‘a Walter Mitty character’, and
   ‘unreliable’. In fact Dr. Kelly was a very senior civil servant scientific advisor.
   Now Mr. Blair and Ms Booth are presumably worried that giving false news was considered a crime at Nuremberg and could well form the basis of a war crimes trial where various Iraqis and relatives of British soldiers killed or maimed in the Iraq war would bring a case against Mr Blair for compensation for damages caused by an illegal war and illegal acts, as per 1907 Hague Convention IV, Article 3, and 1949 Geneva Convention IV, Article 146.
   Pressure by No 10 on The Media
   The pressure that has been put on the media by Blair is revealing, as is the language used by his Press Officer Alistair Campbell, who is
   reported to have said, “We will fuck Gilligan???. On 8 February 2005 he wrote an e. mail to Labour’s advertising agency which, by mistake, he sent to BBC Newsnight. “Now fuck off and cover something important you twats???.
   Greg Dyke, Director of the BBC was told, in a personal letter from the PM, “ I believe, and I am not alone in believing, that you have not got the balance right between support and dissent.??? Shortly after this letter Greg Dyke was sacked because of the Dr Kelly affair.
   Greg Dyke’s response to his sacking was “The charge against Blair is damning. He was either incompetent and took Britain to war on a misunderstanding, or he lied when he told the House of Commons that he did not know what the 45 minutes claim meant. We were all duped. History will not be on Blair’s side. It will show that the whole saga is a great political scandal.???
   Conclusion
   It is not surprising that journalists are wary of Mr Blair’s conclusion to his speech with his Orwellian remarks that “The regulatory framework at some point will need revision…. But the reality is that the viewer or reader have no objective yardstick to measure what they are being told.??? Fortunately he is wrong. We readers have increasingly accessible instruments through good journalism, books, documentaries and the internet that tell us we have been lied to again and again and again.
   T
   i. The Times. Monday June 11 2007-06-16
   Comment: William Rees Mog “Blair extradited? Not as crazy as it sounds???
   
   10 June 2007 Sunday Telegraph.
   Comment “Cherie is worried about a prosecution – she thinks it is a real possibility.???
   
   ii At Nuremberg in 1946, in the trial of Fritzche, radio commentator, and Head of Propaganda Ministry, was accused of “encouraging the commission of war crimes by deliberately falsifying news, to arouse in the German people those passions which lead to the commission of atrocities???. It was decided that he was not aware that the news was false, and was found not guilty.
   
   
   
   Temple