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For Immediate Release: CANA CONDEMNS BBC POLITICAL CONTROL: CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OF HEAD OF NEWS TONY HALL & POLITICAL ADVISER ANN SLOMAN + AN END TO CENSORSHIP BY BBC OF FACTS RE ETHNIC CLEANSING IN KOSOVO & DESTRUCTION OF EUROPE'S ARTISTIC INHERITANCE Statement by Director of Christians Against NATO Aggression (CANA 83 Black Boy Lane London N15 3AP tel/fax 44 20 88 02 21 44) [EMAIL PROTECTED] in the campaign for justice for the peoples of yugoslavia "CANA condemns BBC non coverage of negative developments in Kosovo, including the recent KLA/CIA bombing of the house of the Yugoslav representative in Pristina Mr Vukicevic, which led to the death of his driver Goran, who died after six hours with both legs blown off. "Also the failure to report the death of 4 roma people, heads of families, in Doshevetz 13 miles west of Pristina on 9th November, & many other deaths,including six ethnic Albanians & a serbian in one village. "No words can possibly express the contempt we feel for the BBC's journalists/official media /new labour party hacks/& media apparatchiks for their continued acquiescence in state control of output; (their refusal to consider strike action during the NATO war when NATO bombed the Belgrade television station was perhaps the lowest point in British journalism ever, only exceeded by their failure to report the mass demonstration outside the BBC over that incident.) "What information has been given to the British public about this continued pogrom of roma, serb & jewish people from kosovo + the destruction of churches of Kosovo, (many of them medieval & of immense cultural value),under the eyes of NATO troops, & with apparently the tacit support of the UN authorities & an ineffectual M. Kouchner. " He should resign: these are desperate days of shame for any Europeans with a residual sense of decency, but not for Tony Blair & Robin Cook who are both totally shameless. "M. Kouchner is coming to London shortly, to speak at the LSE on Monday 27th November. He should be asked questions by LSE students, who should not sit respectfully like good Germans, as they did when Jamie Shea arrived last time. "These NATO apologists, including LSE prof Mary Kaldor & Judge Richard Goldstone, who headed up the so called independent Kosovo Commission of Enquiry, have blood on their hands: Mary Kaldor's 'good friend', Jamie Shea promised NATO troops & police at every street corner, to preserve minority rights, after the so called 'liberation' of Kosovo. What is the value of such empty NATO promises now? " ends Attached: copy of letter sent to Sir Christopher Bland BBC Chairman November 2nd 2000. No reply or acknowledgement has been received. To the Chairman Sir Christopher Bland BBC Board of Governors London November 2nd 2000 Dear Sir Christopher. I complain about BBC coverage in relation to the Kosovo crisis, at least from the time I began to take an interest in the region, which was from February 1999. It appears to me that the Corporation has expressed a degree of bias & partisanship as to disqualify it from being a public service broadcaster. As you are in breach of your obligations to the public and to Parliament I really wonder why I should pay any license fee. During the Kosovo war I wrote a number of letters to the BBC complaining at BBC disinformation, censorship, & propaganda, & when I failed to receive adequate responses complained to the Broadcasting Standards Council, (BSC). I attach herewith a letter I sent to the BSC detailing various breaches of journalistic ethics by the Current Affairs Staff. The BSC replied that they had no mandate to investigate failings in news reporting & interpretation. The misuse of the BBC's position was both in the misrepresentation of news stories & in the failure to report events. For example, when in May 1999 I went to Haringey Magistrates to apply for a summons against the PM & other NATO leaders first the BBC expressed great interest in the story: it was then killed stone dead. What happened to me at the Court that morning ( - MI6, or at least some spook, arriving & insisting she sit with me during the in camera application, having already squared the stipendiary Magistrate), makes a story in itself, & were this happening in Chile, or Milosevic's Yugoslavia, one would imagine a great deal of BBC interest. In the end only the local freesheet reported the case. It was newsworthy & in the public interest that you should have broadcast something about my allegations. Time goes by. Milosevic is overthrown, (with the German Govt admitting it gave £7million to the Opposition funnelling it through the Red Cross - another newsworthy story not mentioned.) But the BBC learns nothing. Sunday night 15th October on the Westminster Hour on Radio 4 Andrew Rawnsley said the Serbs were uncivilised. Thankfully Rawnsley's position is not shared by everyone in the BBC: it appears that John Humphries & Tim Sebastian , (the latter did a magnificent job a few days ago interviewing George Robertson on 24 Hours TV) have taken over the role of HM Loyal Opposition, at least in terms of asking questions of the executive which the public want answering. In this sense John Humphries & Tim Sebastian occupy in the broadcast media the position columnists like AN Wilson, Simon Jenkins, Auberon Waugh, Stephen Glover, & Boris Johnson & others occupy in the print media: opposition to the NATO war. But the editorial line of the major newspapers remains that the Kosovo bombardment was a great civilising venture: in like manner the BBC isolate people like Humphries & Sebastian & the new credo is that Robertson & Cook aren't to be interrupted. Air time should be given to explore the diplomatic history. The BBC has not yet given us a single programme telling the public why the war happened. The Rambouillet draft accords & the now notorious Appendix B have never been examined on the BBC. The Alan Little programme "Moral Combat" went some way in that direction but skated over Rambouillet. What is there to hide? Or, what is the BBC hiding for the Government? Answer: a mighty lot. CANA is part of a wider campaign for justice for the peoples of Yugoslavia &asserts the need for a full public expose of the true nature of the negotiations at Rambouillet & the release of biodata on CIA agent William Walker. (He headed up the monitoring force in Kosovo & arranged the Racack Massacre.) I think it's about time Panorama journalists started knocking on a few doors at the Pentagon or Foggy Bottom, & nearer home at Number 10, asking the sortof questions asked of suspects in the Omagh bombing. It was courageous of your journalists to investigate suspected bombers who live in the Irish Republic. I think they have a similar duty to investigate those who occupy high office here, guilty men who conspired to unleash aggressive war & bombed passenger trains & television stations & polluted our common European home with ten tons of DU with a half life of 4.5million years. At stake is an issue of public morality involving questions of life & death for future generations & the ecological devastation of a whole region. What sort of people do this? Answer: not pig farmers, but middle class lawyers posing as humanitarian crusaders, every bit as dangerous as IRA or UVF thugs. Yesterday I received a copy of the indictment of the NATO war lords from a Serbian Court. Looking at the long list of dead & injured I realised that now I'm in the position of being a citizen of the Irish Republic during the recent Troubles. Only this 'Irish Republic' draws its boundaries a bit wider, & takes in all of western Europe & north America. Within this refuge politicians are immune from the rule of law & get away with any crime, as long as they claim it's political. I want to know why the BBC has not told us the truth about the NATO air war, its causes & consequences. Yours sincerely, William Spring c.c. Governors Broadcast Wm Hague Tony Benn et al ADD COPY: CANA in association with CJPY (Campaign for Justice for the Peoples of Yugoslavia) is arranging a one day Conference A DAY OF TRUTH at Friends Meeting House Euston Rd London (opposite Euston Stn) on 24th February 2001. For details contact CANA on 02088022144 or CJPY on 01444232356. |
