Western Media

The owner of Express Newspapers and Channel 5 appeared in front of the Leveson inquiry on January 12, to face to charges of defamatory coverage of the Madeleine McCann case. According to the parent of the disappeared girl, several articles published on those newspapers were mistaken and defamatory. As the first newspaper owner speaking in the inquiry, Richard Desmond tried to downplay the accuses, stating that just a minor part of the articles had a negative stance against the McCann family, and this was reflecting the general perception of the British audience at that time. Mr Desmond apologized for the conduct of his newspapers, but accused the inquiry of using his newspapers as a “scapegoat”.

The first Western journalist has been killed in Syria on January 11, extending the list of media staff who gave life in reporting the events of the Arab spring in the last months. A France 2 channel reporter, Gilles Jacquier was reporting from the city of Homs, embedded to a government authorized group covering a pro-Assad manifestation. According to the Syrian official version, Jacquier was hit by a RPG launched by a protest group that was targeting Assad supporters, and the French reporter died on the spot. Doubts about the government reconstruction of the events have been erased by Syrian opposition groups and also international human rights associations. For sure, if the Syrian government would demonstrate that the situation was under its control, the attempt failed, as Guardian journalist Ian Black commented. While the situation in Syria is rapidly deteriorating and civil population is increasingly suffering the conflict escalation between different factions, journalists and reporters are paying a high price for covering the developments in the region.

A really hard 2012 start for Christian Wulff, President of Germany, who has been asked to resign after he tried to stop the publishing of a story about him. According to a journalist investigation, Christian Wulff accepted a £ 420,000 loan at a favorable interest rate from the wife of Egon Geekens, a German businessman. When Mr Wulff discovered that Das Bild was going to publish the story, he contacted the newspaper editor, threatening judicial consequences and a breach in the relations between the Presidency and the newspaper. His attempt was unsuccessful, and he later tried to excuse personally for his behavior, but the details about the whole story had already been released. Even if the loan was subscribed before he became President in May 2010, now he has to face increasing pressure, asking to clarify his position, while some people are expecting him to resign.

Two Swedish journalists have been sentenced to 11 years for terrorism activities by an Ethiopian court at the end of the last December. They had entered illegally the African country in Ogaden along with a Somali rebel group, the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is considered a terroristic organization by Addis Adela. Johan Persson and Martin Schibbye are freelance journalist, publishing for several Scandinavian newspapers, and they were imprisoned after being discovered during a clash between government and rebel forces in the Ogaden area. During the process, the two recognized to had entered in the country illegally, but with the purpose of covering stories about human rights abuses and business involvement of Swedish companies in the exploitation of local oil resources. Despite the court rejected their claims, the judge had not sentenced them with the maximum of the penalty, which is 18 years, and this can be considered a good sign for the appeal phase. Living conditions in Ethiopian prisons are harsh, but the two are not considered in danger of life, and the staff of the Swedish Embassy is assisting them. Local activists have accused the ruling Ethiopian government to have organized a campaign against opposition groups and democracy in the country, and more than 150 arrests have been reported in 2011, counting several journalists.

Russian journalist Hadzhimurad Kamalov was shot dead on December 15 in the Russian Province of Daghestan. Kamalov was a well known reporter in Russia, especially for his work in denouncing corruption in the Russian institutions. He was the executive director of an organization promoting freedom of expression called “Svoboda Slova”, and the founder of the Daghestan newspaper Chernovik. He was killed while leaving his newspaper office, shot 14 times by unknown people, in exactly the day Russians commemorate journalists killed in the line of duty. Kamalov is the fourth journalist killed in Russia this year, for a total of 40 since 2000, making Russia one of the most dangerous place for reporters in the world.

Brief update in the Leveson affair.
Sean Hoare’s brother, Stuart Hoare, gave written witness to the inquiry, stating that “phone hacking was routine” at the Sun and at the News of the World. A former News of the World reporter, Sean was found dead last July, due to natural causes: in September 2010, he spoke out about hacking practise done by journals in a New York Times article. His brother said Sean was under great pressure from his superiors in doing his job, and that phone hacking was “endemic” in the group, a common practise by several journalists. On the 20th of December session, the former editor of Daily Mirror Piers Morgan denied any involvement in hacking practices. In front of the court, he stated that he did not investigate the nature of the practices in collecting information to not compromise his sources. In his 10 years working experience at the Daily Mirror, Mr Morgan denied knowledge of illegal practices, dismissing as rumours every charge against his behaviour. The Leveson inquiry was set up to investigate alleged illegal and anti-ethical practices undertaken by UK media and newspapers in collecting information.

BBC won’t sack one of its best known presenters, Jeremy Clarkson, after his declarations about the last British public strike last month. Commenting the strike on The One Show on 4th December, Mr Clarkson declared that the strikers should be “shot in front of their families”, causing huge protests and requests for his sack by the British working unions. BBC director general Mark Thompson confirmed that BBC is not going to fire him and that Clarkson’s declarations were intended as a joke, even if it was a stupid one. Clarkson, had already apologized for his remarks, and will continue with his programme on the BBC, Top Gear, estimated to have around 350 million viewers per week all around the world. The BBC received 32,000 complaints about the Clarkson comments.

BBC rejected the critics for misleading audience during its series of “Frozen Planet” about polar bears in their natural wild environment, broadcasted at the end of November on BBC One. Some sequences were filmed in a Dutch zoo, but the audience was not advertised of this, and the documentary was edited as the whole scenes were taken place in the wild. A BBC spokesman said that it would not be possible in another way, and detailed information about the footage is available on the website.Despite this justification, several UK newspapers have criticized the BBC conduct, asking for corrections in its programs.

BBC says that no evidence of bribery and phone or computer hacking in the journalists work, as emerged from a broad internal investigation. Addressing the monthly BBC Trust meeting at the end of October, BBC Director General Mark Thompson said that the findings are good: the conduct of the corporation’s employees is sound with the BBC guidelines, and private investigations are occasionally used only for “subject of significant public interests programmes” and for “surveillance and security services”. The BBC internal review was launched under request of the Leveson’s inquiry, which is investigating the UK media standard and practices. However, Mr Thompson suggested a strengthen in the BBC editorial guidelines, maybe scared of possible scandals rising from the BBC journalist conduct.

On the 14th of February, the 'ONE show' told the story of the travelling community who were being unlawfully evicted from Dale Farm. The 5-minute piece failed to mention the fact that the area had been marked, by the council, to be a green belt area which aims to combat the growing issue of urban sprawl by maintaing green areas and transforming them into an area for agriculture, forestry or leisure.

Following the brief report, the show's presenters sympathised with the travelling community and failed to perserve an unbiased front which led Basildon council to lodge a formal complaint about the inaccurate and misleading information presented.

The BBC editorial standards committee has admitted that the show had been duly inaccurate yet unknowingly misleading.

Sam Husseini, communications director for the Insitute of Public Accuracy, was repremanded on Friday last for his tenacious questioning of Prince Turki al-Faisal, of Saudi Arabia.

The journalist undauntedly queried;

"There’s been a lot of talk about the legitimacy of the Syrian regime, I want to know what legitimacy your regime has sir. You come before us, representative of one of the most autocratic, misogynistic regimes on the face of the earth. Human Rights Watch and other reports of torture detention of activist, you squelched the democratic uprising in Bahrain, you tried to overturn the democratic uprising in Egypt and indeed you continue to oppress your own people. What legitimacy does you regime have – other than billions of dollars and weapons?",

Eventually choosing to go the offensive route, the prince explained that the US had only passed suffrage for women in 1910 after 121 years of legitimate government while Saudi Arabia in only it's 81st year as a recognised state, allows women to not only vote, but participate in elections and become members of the Shura Council.

Husseini was later informed that he would be suspended from the National Press Club, (a club whose aim is 'to be the world's leading professional organisation for journalists') for two weeks for his breach of house rule number 4 through his use of boisterous or unseemly conduct.

Following the annihilation of Col. Muammar Gaddafi, global media provided the medium for the images of the dictator's death to be seen all around the world. These images were the primary subject for the majority of press publications whether it was tabloid or broadsheet, online or televised, the images could not be avoided. Unsurprisingly, the pictures caused upset to some audiences, recently leading the BBC to defend their actions of exhibiting Gaddafi's murder.

On the 19th of November, Mary Hockaday of the BBC multimedia newsroom blogged that although the images were shocking and gruesome, BBC's decision to broadcast the images was editorially justified and "as a news organisation our role is to report what happened, and that can include shocking and disturbing things".

The BBC showed the images follwing a clear warning to viewers regarding their nature on both the 6PM and 10PM news bulletin but omitted the pictures from it's website later on.

The French satirical magazine, “Charlie Hebdo”, which was taken to court in 2007 for its decision to publish Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, has come back into the spotlight again. However, this time it is not being attacked in court, but instead attacked with physical violence. The offices of Charlie Hebdo were petrol-bombed, destroying most of the office’s contents and blowing out windows, reportedly because of its release of a “sharia edition” which featured a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad on the cover as “guest editor”.

Whether one agrees with the publication of such provocative cartoons or not, the petrol-bombing, which was accompanied by threats on Twitter, Facebook and through the post, was an unacceptable and worrying attempt at intimidating an organ of the free press. Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Council for the Muslim Faith (CFCM), has strongly condemned the fire if police did confirm it was a criminal attack, and Paris City Hall said it would help Charlie Hebdo find a new office. 

The special edition of the paper mocked the victory of the An-Nahda Party in Tunisia: “To fittingly celebrate the victory of the Islamist Ennahda party in Tunisia... Charlie Hebdo has asked Muhammad to be the special editor-in-chief of its next issue. The prophet of Islam didn't have to be asked twice and we thank him for it.” The cover of the issue shows Muhammad saying “100 lashes if you are not dying of laughter,” which has yet again caused a great deal of offence. A spokesman for Charlie Hebdo explained that this was a response to what was happening in Tunisia and Libya in which Islamist parties are gaining prominence. This is particularly infuriating for many Tunisians since it seems to lump An-Nadha into the standard Western depiction of an “Islamist” camp despite the fact that it campaigned explicitly on a moderate basis, insisting on women's rights and the importance of political plurality.

Although of course such attacks should in no way be allowed to take place, and free press should be encouraged, such freedom must also come with responsibility. Charlie Hebdo should certainly be allowed to publish satirical content, but should consider acting with greater sensitivity.

The Daily Mail is in trouble again, this time resulting in Associated Newspapers being sued for libel over the Mail’s article on Cherie Blair’s former lifestyle guru, Carole Caplin. The Mail article, published in September 2010, claimed that Caplin would “blow the lid” on her client’s new book and reveal the Blairs’ “sex secrets” for £1 million. But David Price QC, acting for Caplin told the high court in London, "the truth is that, contrary to the article, Ms Caplin has never had any intention of disclosing any confidential information concerning the Blairs.” Furthermore, the article claimed that Caplin had financial difficulties, which was the reason for her being tempted by the £1mn reward for the “secrets”. Price explained that not only were the assertions about Caplin’s financial status unfounded, but she also did not even possess “sex secrets” that the Mail claimed could “finish” the Blairs.

Associated Newspapers has agreed to pay substantial damages to Carole Caplin.

“In general”, writes Roy Greenslade of the Guardian, I don’t think newspapers should carry pictures of dead people.”

This was also the ruling upheld by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) which has censured the Daily Record for using a picture that showed the body of a man wrapped in sheeting, found on a footpath near Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh. The PCC made its ruling after the man’s aunt complained that the Daily Record had been insensitive and had caused distress to family and friends, adding that he was not a celebrity so the paper should have exercised some restraint. The PCC sided with the aunt, arguing that there was no justification for the “very specific nature” of the photo and though the Record had a duty to inform the public, it was also obliged to handle publication of such stories with sensitivity.

Certainly this is a very fine line to straddle. This case of the Daily Record raises similar questions to those raised recently in the debate about images of Qaddafi. The very graphic footage of a barely-alive Qaddafi, and eventually his dead body, were aired by most of the major broadcasters and carried by mainstream newspapers. This, however, appears to have been deemed acceptable; as Roy Greenslade points out “it is, of course, unlikely that a relative of Colonel Gaddafi will make any complaint about the papers' grisly front page pictures of his dead body.”

ITV is to be investigated by Ofcom for using footage that they claimed was the IRA shooting down a helicopter with weapons supplied by Qaddafi, when it was in fact taken from a video game, Arma 2. Current affairs show, Exposure, used the video game sequence in its first episode but this was spotted by games fans after the programme was broadcast. ITV was forced to issue an apology and has said that it was “human error” rather than a deliberate choice which led to the game sequence being used. ITV also said that it did in fact have the correct footage but it was labelled incorrectly.

Ofcom’s investigation will reveal whether the incident constituted a breach of its broadcasting code.