Dear Everyone
I am really sorry to be writing with this information to send to any of you about this but I am writing because knowledge of events can help prevent killing and atrocities in countries like Gaza and Sri Lanka. I am writing as just rejecting news black outs (censorship) can help people who are being killed, tortured or suffering from other forms of devastation.
As an example of news black outs used to organise mass killing - The successful news black out of the Nixon (Kissinger led) and Callaghan Governments, who were working in conjunction with the Chinese allowed secret US B52 bombardment on twice the level of Hiroshima in Cambodia. This laid the path for the asian hitler Pol Pot to be born. The people of Cambodia then suffered mass starvation when our own Government along with others including the International Red Cross refused to put together a humanitarian and food aid programme after the torture and destruction of the country's agriculture and civil society by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. At this time, journalist John Pilger produced an award winning documentary which told us what had happened and this helped the people of Cambodia enormously.
We as citizens of the world can prevent this happening in our time by simply being aware of what is happening to our fellow citizens across the world and telling our friends and refusing to accept news black outs on our own supposedly free news network. Please could everyone read about what the press is not telling us about what is happening in Gaza and Sri Lanka as you will be amazed about the impact this has.
1 The BBC is censoring Gaza aid appeals and selectively broadcasting. UN buildings as well as schools and hospitals have been destoryed and 89% of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents have received no humanitarian aid since Israel began its assault (see media lens news below for further information)
2 The Sri Lankan Government is waging a war of Genocide against Tamil people using cluster bombs. In the last month alone, Tamil groups say that 300,000 people have been displaced through internal continuous bombardment. Furthermore, cluster bombs are being used. Cluster bombs rain down deadly bomblets on an area the size of a football field with six bombs falling in every 1,000 square feet. Similarly to Cambodia bodies of people killed and tortured are being found on the river Jaffna and many other awful atrocities are taking place. I do not have any further information on what is happening in Sri Lanka but I understand this website has been created for those who may want to know more. please see www.tyo-uk.org for more information. The black out in Sri Lanka extends to NGOs and even the UN Human Rights Council
I would also be grateful if people would consider passing this information on but understand if you do not feel you can. I am not asking people to donate as I know the Tsunami aid money was not used to help victims and the audit systems have still not told us how this money was administered by the Disaster Emergency Committee. I would not donate to anyone other than Médecins Sans Frontières who refused to accept Tsunami money after the emergency work was concluded. Indeed, Naomi Klein has documented the use of aid money on what she calls the Disaster Economy but
Thank you in advance and sorry for disturbing any of you.
Peace and love
Bal
I am really sorry to be writing with this information to send to any of you about this but I am writing because knowledge of events can help prevent killing and atrocities in countries like Gaza and Sri Lanka. I am writing as just rejecting news black outs (censorship) can help people who are being killed, tortured or suffering from other forms of devastation.
As an example of news black outs used to organise mass killing - The successful news black out of the Nixon (Kissinger led) and Callaghan Governments, who were working in conjunction with the Chinese allowed secret US B52 bombardment on twice the level of Hiroshima in Cambodia. This laid the path for the asian hitler Pol Pot to be born. The people of Cambodia then suffered mass starvation when our own Government along with others including the International Red Cross refused to put together a humanitarian and food aid programme after the torture and destruction of the country's agriculture and civil society by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot. At this time, journalist John Pilger produced an award winning documentary which told us what had happened and this helped the people of Cambodia enormously.
We as citizens of the world can prevent this happening in our time by simply being aware of what is happening to our fellow citizens across the world and telling our friends and refusing to accept news black outs on our own supposedly free news network. Please could everyone read about what the press is not telling us about what is happening in Gaza and Sri Lanka as you will be amazed about the impact this has.
1 The BBC is censoring Gaza aid appeals and selectively broadcasting. UN buildings as well as schools and hospitals have been destoryed and 89% of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents have received no humanitarian aid since Israel began its assault (see media lens news below for further information)
2 The Sri Lankan Government is waging a war of Genocide against Tamil people using cluster bombs. In the last month alone, Tamil groups say that 300,000 people have been displaced through internal continuous bombardment. Furthermore, cluster bombs are being used. Cluster bombs rain down deadly bomblets on an area the size of a football field with six bombs falling in every 1,000 square feet. Similarly to Cambodia bodies of people killed and tortured are being found on the river Jaffna and many other awful atrocities are taking place. I do not have any further information on what is happening in Sri Lanka but I understand this website has been created for those who may want to know more. please see www.tyo-uk.org for more information. The black out in Sri Lanka extends to NGOs and even the UN Human Rights Council
I would also be grateful if people would consider passing this information on but understand if you do not feel you can. I am not asking people to donate as I know the Tsunami aid money was not used to help victims and the audit systems have still not told us how this money was administered by the Disaster Emergency Committee. I would not donate to anyone other than Médecins Sans Frontières who refused to accept Tsunami money after the emergency work was concluded. Indeed, Naomi Klein has documented the use of aid money on what she calls the Disaster Economy but
Thank you in advance and sorry for disturbing any of you.
Peace and love
Bal
The BBC Refuses To Broadcast Gaza Charity Appeal
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> January 23, 2009
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> RAPID RESPONSE MEDIA ALERT: THE BBC REFUSES TO BROADCAST GAZA CHARITY APPEAL
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> Numerous members of the public have written to us expressing their bewilderment at the violence of Israel’s 22-day attack on Gaza killing upwards of 1,400 people and wounding 5,500. To many witnessing the onslaught on their TV screens (especially Al Jazeera) this appeared to be an act of state sadism.
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> Israeli forces repeatedly bombed schools (including UN schools), medical centres, hospitals, ambulances, UN buildings, power plants, sewage plants, roads, bridges and civilian homes.
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> On January 15, Helpdoctors.org reported that Al Quds hospital had been “again the target of bombing”. Some 50 patients, 30 in wheelchairs, fled as the burning hospital was “totally destroyed”. (
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.helpdoctors.org%2F&langpair=fr%7Cen&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools) >
> The hospital’s medical director said, "My heart is crying," as he described how intensive care patients and premature babies in incubators were wheeled onto the street in the middle of the night. (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7833919.stm) >
> On January 19, UN official John Ging said half a million people in Gaza had been without water since the conflict began - huge numbers were without power. Four thousand homes have been ruined and tens of thousands of people are homeless. (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7836869.stm) >
> It is now known that the Israeli army (the IDF) used white phosphorus incendiary weapons - designed to burst over a wide area and burn to the bone - against civilian targets, including hospitals and UN buildings. The use of these weapons against civilians is a war crime.
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> Surgeons in Gaza have reported numerous, unusual cases where bomb victims had lost both legs rather than one, raising suspicions that the Israeli military used Dense Inert Metal Explosive (Dime) bombs - experimental weapons that generate micro-shrapnel that burns and destroys everything within a four-metre radius. Dr. Erik Fosse, a Norwegian surgeon, commented:
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> "We suspect they used Dime weapons because we saw cases of huge amputations or flesh torn off the lower parts of the body. The pressure wave [from a Dime device] moves from the ground upwards and that's why the majority of patients have huge injuries to the lower part of the body and abdomen... The problem is that most of the patients I saw were children. If they [the Israelis] are trying to be accurate, it seems obvious these weapons were aimed at children." (Patrick O’Connor, ‘Reports reveal devastation wreaked by Israeli military in Gaza,’ World Socialist Web Site, January 20, 2008;
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jan2009/gaza-j20.shtml) >
> The IDF also used hideous “flachette bombs” - high-tech nail bombs that shower victims with small metal darts that penetrate flesh and bone.
> (
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/phosphorus+controversy+in+gaza++/2909012) >
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> The BBC - Impartial or Immoral?
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> Despite this carnage, despite the fact that 89% of Gaza’s 1.5 million residents have received no humanitarian aid since Israel began its assault (
http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35162), the Guardian notes that the BBC has refused to broadcast a national humanitarian appeal for Gaza, “leaving aid agencies with a potential shortfall of millions of pounds in donations.” (Jenny Percival, ‘Broadcasters refuse to air Gaza charity appeal,’ The Guardian, January 23, 2008; >
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/22/gaza-charity-appeal) >
> The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), an umbrella organisation for 13 aid charities, launched its Gaza appeal yesterday saying the devastation was "so huge that British aid agencies were compelled to act". (Ibid.)
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> By refusing to give free airtime to the appeal, the BBC made a unique decision to breach an agreement dating back to 1963. Other broadcasters then also rejected it. The DEC's chief executive, Brendan Gormley, said:
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> "We are used to our appeal getting into every household and offering a safe and necessary way for people to respond. This time we will have to work a lot harder because we won't have the free airtime or the powerful impact of appearing on every TV and radio station." (Ibid.)
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> A BBC website article defending the BBC’s refusal to broadcast the Gaza appeal, asserted:
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> "The BBC decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story.” (
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7846150.stm) >
> Gormley rejected the BBC's claim that there were question marks about the delivery of aid, saying 100 lorries a day were entering Gaza. He also challenged the alleged problem with “impartiality”:
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> "We are totally apolitical and are driven by the principles of the Geneva conventions in terms of impartiality and neutrality. This appeal is a response to those humanitarian principles. The BBC seems to be confusing impartiality with equal airtime." (Percival, op. cit)
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> ITV said: "The DEC asked all broadcasters if they could support the appeal. We (the broadcasters) assessed the DEC's requirements carefully against the agreed criteria and we were unable to reach the consensus necessary for an appeal." (Ibid.)
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> Sky said: "We were considering this request internally when the DEC contacted us to let us know that the BBC had decided not to broadcast the appeal at this time. As, by convention, if all broadcasters do not carry the appeal then none do, the decision was effectively made for us." (Ibid.)
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> This immoral and callous decision by the BBC in response to the suffering of the people of Gaza should not go unchallenged. Please complain using the phone number and email addresses below:
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> SUGGESTED ACTION
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> The goal of Media Lens is to promote rationality, compassion and respect for others. If you do write to journalists, we strongly urge you to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.
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> Phone the BBC from the UK on: 03700 100 222
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> Helen Boaden, Director of BBC news
> Email:
helenboaden.complaints@bbc.co.uk >
> Peter Horrocks, Head of BBC TV News
> Email:
peter.horrocks@bbc.co.uk >
> Richard Sambrook, Director of the World Service and Global News
> Email:
richard.sambrook@bbc.co.uk >
> General complaints to the BBC can be submitted via this form:
> www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
>
> Please send a copy of your emails to us
> Email:
editor@medialens.org
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