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Climate Camp launches Press Complaint over G20 article

camp for climate action | 24.02.2009 02:03 | G20 London Summit | Climate Chaos

Today, the Camp for Climate Action lodged a complaint with the Press
Complaints Commission (PCC) against the Evening Standard. The camp claims
the Standard's article regarding the April 1st event "Climate Camp in
London's Square mile", to be held during the G20, is misleading.

The February 20th article was written under the deceptive headline
"Anarchists plan City riots for G20 leaders' arrival in London," and
contained no evidence whatsoever that anyone was planning a riot. In
fact, the camp's website  http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20 says "Bring a
pop-up tent if you've got one, sleeping bag, wind turbine, mobile
cinema, action plans and ideas...let's imagine another world."

The authors of the article, Robert Mendick and Nigel Rosser, have had
previous run-ins with the PCC and the Camp for Climate Action. Mr
Mendicks article "Militants will hit Heathrow" (13 August 2007) , was
judged "materially misleading" by the PCC, and an article by Mr Mendick
and Mr Rosser, "Eco-protesters target school run mothers" (31 March 2008)
has been retracted by the Evening Standard. [1]

"The Evening Standard is engaging in a campaign of misinformation and fear
against the Camp for Climate Action. We will not tolerate their smears,
especially in the run up to our April 1st, Climate Camp in the Square
Mile" said Alex Harvey, of the Camp for Climate Action Media team.

[1] The complaint, and background on the previous complaints can be found at:
 http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/fighting_the_smears
 http://www.climatecamp.org.uk/g20-complaint

camp for climate action
- Homepage: http://wwww.climatecamp.org.uk/g20

Comments

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me thinks

24.02.2009 08:26

that you are a bit too sensitive



hildy


Going rate?

24.02.2009 08:34

I wonder how much these 2 'journalists' are being paid by the police to feed these fake articles? Perhaps it's the old boy's network at work and not cash, do they visit any private member drinking clubs?

BungWatch


evening standard is scum but...

24.02.2009 08:58

its better publicity then anything we've come up with so far... really guys it ain't so bad!

camper


the evening standard propaganda machine needs sabotaging

24.02.2009 09:46

it wasnt that bad BUT did misrepresent us in the headline and after all the evening standard are total total scum bags..and owners of the Daily Mail and should not be allowed to get away with anything ..

On the eve of the mayday 2000 guerrilla gardening Reclaim the Streets action their headline was ARMY ON STANDBY FOR MAYDAY RIOT.. and we were organising a garden party !! and surely the army are ALWAYS on stanby !!!

In those days we just let them get away with it and put thousands of angry citizens off coming onto the streets because they were frightened of the army AND of riots !!! .. Now we have grown up and we challenge their spells - after all revolution happens in the mind and on the streeets and right not its people like the evening standard that are occupying our minds !!

so well done for doing another PCC on the bastards...

camper 2


Well said camper 2!

24.02.2009 10:57

Well said camper 2!

another camper


Beware of splitting the movement...

24.02.2009 11:49

Sure you all know this, but worth saying anyway...

Just be aware that one of the main purposes of articles like this is not just to scare the public off, but to get elements of the political scene it portrays to run a mile from the 'anarchist rioter' idea (which, let's be honest, isn't entirely untrue) and so end up splitting the scene into radical/liberal elements, which they will then repress/accommodate depending on what suits them the best.

The trick is to stay radical, be proud and open of our politics, and not cower desperately trying to distance ourselves from any 'bad press' that might come our way and in doing so helping them to split and destroy the movement.

Anarchists... yup. Rioters... sometimes. Liberals... never.

Another camper

Another camper


Don't worry about it.

24.02.2009 13:12

I have to agree with the comments already posted.

Why bother about what a bag of shit newspaper like the Evening Standard say. ES reporters are an habitually dim lot at the best of times. The problem for them is that nobody trusts them enough to want to talk to them. These reporters live in an overworked bubble and very rarely understand anything they write about.

As for the police, well, they clearly are planning for violence so it seems reasonable to assume that the Police themselves are a threat to public order and the public safety. Articles like this simply illustrate that the police, media and government are playing guessing games. They are using a mix of exageration, threat and deception in order to get what they want...and that, clearly, is violence.

Police officers who give interviews to shabby little titles like the ES should be more careful in future. Giving interviews 'predicting' widespread civil disorder this summer to retarded tabloidians isn't freedom of speech, its incitement to riot....and that makes you, PC Pillock, a criminal and a subversive.

If the police and the media want rioting then why not have the courage to say so? The people will love you for it....honestly!

PC Pillock.


It's one way to

24.02.2009 18:22

Well it's one way to try and raise funds for climate camp ?!

*$*


More sinister than this

24.02.2009 20:26

Don't be fooled into dismissing the little ES shit-bag. This is part of a psych-ops, and goes together with the "summer of rage" story and with the "cops need more money" story also around the same time. They need more money for more plods in more gear to rage down on protesters who have already been smeared in the public eye. This is out-and-out propaganda - not a little snide remark from some ill-informed copper shooting off his mouth. These stories serve functions: they create ideas, images, and the presstitute stories will inevitably carry dramatic pictures of riots to fix the image.

Really - these fuckers are PR-clued up. Don't get misled by their BS. Stick to the agenda, raise a complaint, obtain a formal apology and retraction and that becomes a counter-image, some counter-evidence. This is laying down the preparations for the plod kicking off and making us look like the bad guys and them the good guys. Be aware, be forewarned and be smart!!

Take the little ES shitbag of political (fascist!) propaganda to the cleaners for being such a slut to the filth.

Cassandra


after being kettled& indiscriminateley baton charged,add agent provocatuers then

25.02.2009 00:07

anyone can become a rioter sometimes,any1. Lets not be provoked unecessarily or divided. How do I help this complaint?, its not that clear. Then again Ive just got back from the pub.

James


Please, pursue the complaint

25.02.2009 08:39

Look at the onslaught we face in the animal rights movement. Even some activists have believed the utter shite reporters have published about us. The Evening Standard are basically preparing the public for police suppression of demonstrators and indeed justifying a violent response ahead of the event.
Furthermore in civil courts press cuttings have been used in evidence against activists and successfully. At present video footage of peaceful protest is being used against AR activists in criminal trials placing in the public mind that ANY protest is terrorism. Some reporters will just make things up (I can think of a few examples) and because it is in print it gets regurgitated as fact and quoted as such by all sorts of people who have nothing to compare it with.
Be warned. Any violence, wrongful arrests and outright thuggery by police, animal abusers and courts against animal rights activists is now ignored, belittled and even encouraged. Leaflets and banners are described as "offensive" and "harassing". People have life sentences for running campaigns.Activists are hospitalised frequently, several have been killed and their killers got away with murder. Do not allow this to happen to climate change activists.
NETCU and co have made it clear that they want to disrupt ALL campaigning (yes including legal stuff), the Evening Standard article is part of that.

Lynn Sawyer


I personally know a respected care worker& AR activist who was attacked during a

25.02.2009 10:33

peaceful hunt monitoring which is also illegal & was laid upon by blokes with iron bars, the scars on her head were nasty. The police intimidate legal AR activists so much that she didnt report it,photos etc get taken by AR activists,& these are all cases for amnesty international,legal, EU & the many decent people in Britain who do not believe in abuse. The police should have arested these people & the many cases of attempted murder of activists, the world is watching though.
Things Ive seen on protests were a man agressiveley trying to run over shell fuel station blockaders infront of police who took his side & I heard a farmer was unconvicted for trying to drive his tractor into the kids block at the Drax climate camp. The police in that instant did temporarily restrain the farmer who they were hiring land off for parking during camp, but he was not convicted of attempted murder.
All of this is true & mostly verifiable in court+ would make a good story in any mainstream newspaper or on the telly.
Most activists I know are maybe too commendable in their restraint especially considering the repression we deal with. Some police do try to follow good legal pratice despite pressure from the politicians & the police. I'd be willing to write a article on this I am on some international journo pages, unless someone else does I'd be happy to help do one & maybe even get paid something
 sparkeee1@hotmail.com

Green Syndicalist


Green Syndicalist

26.02.2009 10:50

Please stop posting your nutty beyond comprehension comments. You got to be the most continuous irrelevant boring poster on Indymedia. Please please take a break and fuck off!

Is a Nut case
- Homepage: http://Green Syndicalist is a nutter


@ Is a Nut case

26.02.2009 18:35

At least the poster was contributing information - anecdotal, admittedly, but info nonetheless - which feeds into the general groundswell of what might one day become evidence or inspiration, the final straw in bringing about change. You, however, for all of your arrogance and swagger merely offer ad hominem insults and flail about in the discursive winds like an unproductive, if not broken, windmill.

Unless you have evidence to support your blanket claims that the poster called Green Syndicalist is "the most continuous irrelevant boring poster on Indymedia", then I would suggest that you, yourself, take your ignorance, intolerance, and head-up-own-ass attitude and promptly "fuck off".

As for the poster called Green Syndicalist, might I suggest that you try to give some references to your statements (e.g. dates, times, locations, etc.). It gives your postings more credibility.

Put Up or Shut Up


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PUT UP OR SHUT UP

28.02.2009 09:03



BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH IDIOT

IS A TIT


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