Welcome to Bennett's World: a collection of articles and references covering a wide variety of topics in which I am involved. I am a very political person but I have no allegiance to any political party. Follow me on twitter @colinhove

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Progress for Hearing Impaired People - and Others

I don't usually publish posts concerning my "disabled access" campaigning but something quite interesting happened here in Brighton on 22 October 2015.

The Tomlin Order posted here in its entirety tells the story. The message is that HI people who are effectively excluded from a meeting because there is no induction loop or infra-red system present can challenge this situation more effectively. They can quote this Tomlin Order in support.



Friday, October 23, 2015

The Plight of the Palistinians and the BBC's Reporting of Events in Palestine

In my inbox appeared a moving email from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. One day, the Palestinians will get justice. In the mean time, please follow events by going to the website for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/

Dear friend,

Some of us in the office lost our friend Hashem today. He was killed by tear gas when occupation forces refused him medical attention. He was a peace activist and spent his life refusing to give in to the occupation.

When you wake up to news like this, it's tough to think positively. So this email is a reminder of the power we have when we work together. It's this power - which Palestinians harness every day - that will ultimately end the occupation.

Scroll down for some incredible actions that happened in the last week, but first how we challenged the BBC and won.

The BBC’s reporting of events in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during October has been consistently one-sided, favouring Israel, and portraying the occupier solely as a victim. [1]

However, in the last two weeks we've shown that people power can make a difference to reporting.

On the morning of Saturday 10th October, two Palestinian boys - Marwan Barbakh, 12, and Khalil Othman, 15 – were shot dead by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The BBC failed to report the killings. Instead, the BBC Online headline for the day was: Jerusalem attacks: Israelis hurt in two Palestinian stabbings.

That evening, we highlighted this extraordinary bias on social media, particularly Facebook, and asked you to send complaints to the BBC. An hour later, the BBC had changed the headline to Israeli-Palestinian violence continues and began the article with news of the killing of the two Palestinian boys. [2]

Days later, on 14th October, the BBC’s Diplomatic Editor, Mark Urban, called Jerusalem ‘Israel’s capital’ during a broadcast on Newsnight (BBC Two). [3] Again, we highlighted this enormous error and asked you to complain.

You did, and, on 16th October, the BBC issued a clarification on its website and on Twitter. [4]

Your complaints to the BBC have already made an impact.

The BBC is notorious for its misreporting, its politically skewed narrative in the name of "balance", and one-sided stories which further dehumanise Palestinians.

We've written a guide – How the BBC constructs its biased news reporting (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=b2bbe4a772&e=ab86d850da) – to help you unpick the BBC’s bias and make an efficient complaint. You may also find our guide – How to complain to the BBC (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=9a9ec9f27f&e=ab86d850da) – helpful.

When you see bias, inaccuracies and blatant omissions in BBC news reporting, you have the power to change it. Using our guide, make sure you make a complaint to the BBC. (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=d42b81dff7&e=ab86d850da ) The success we've had just this week demonstrates how important this is, and how effective our collective voice can be.

Notes:
1. Amena Saleem’s report for The Electronic Intifada (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=ef15c4451a&e=ab86d850da) on the BBC's open concern for Israelis under attack and its near disdain for the mass murder of Palestinians.
2. The BBC's amended headline (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=3a8b6b4fe3&e=ab86d850da) after our complaints
3. Mark Urban referring to Jerusalem as Israel's capital (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=f80b3cfa86&e=ab86d850da)
4. The BBC's clarification after our complaints: on their website (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=3e1d759413&e=ab86d850da) and Twitter (http://palestinecampaign.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=39b479575f6b893766d815ffd&id=60fa325564&e=ab86d850da) .

Elsewhere, powerful actions and important victories:

In London on Saturday over 2000 of us took to the streets to send a clear message of solidarity with Palestine, and to demand an end to the Israeli occupation at the heart of the current violence. London Palestine Action followed the protest with direct action, shutting down Oxford Street to make people stop and think about their own complicity in Israel’s occupation through our government’s relationship with Israel.

This week, activists from PSC and Campaign Against Arms Trade in East Kent occupied an abandoned airport, which is the proposed new site for Elbit, the company which manufactures Israeli drones. This brilliant action was the culmination of months of lobbying the local council to refuse Elbit’s application.  And they won! The Council’s planning committee voted unanimously against Elbit’s application to expand.

When we take action, on the media, on the arms trade, and on the Israeli occupation in general, we win. In moments of sadness and anger when we see Palestinians being killed for doing nothing more than being Palestinian, we can remember our collective power to change the situation one step at a time.

Monday, October 12, 2015

Zionist Terrorist chasing Ahmed Salah, who they executed hours ago in Shuafat Concentration camp in Jerusalem

If you're ever thinking of consuming any goods or services from Israel or the Israeli occupied territories then looking at this photo might put you off doing so. Here is the link:

https://twitter.com/AbbsWinston/status/652680042292449281/photo/1

Boycott Israel.

Wednesday, October 07, 2015

Tackling BBC Fabrications on Syria

Many readers will recall the fabrications made by BBC radio and television concerning Syria. We are talking 'Saving Syria's Children', the alleged napalm attacks, the alleged chemical weapons attacks, the alleged chlorine attacks, and the alleged dropping of so-called barrel bombs.

Nothing has yet come of investigations into these supposed events. Ofcom has issued a big report on them and you can judge for yourselves its value!

Below are some links concerning complaints about these reports and their editing:

Ofcom ruled that elements of the programme were "materially misleading".

It also said the BBC had been treated "unfairly" by programme, called The Truthseeker, as it was not given a opportunity to address the allegations before the programme was broadcast.


 OFCOM RULES ON ALL OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIONS INTO RT MOSCOW

Published time: 21 Sep, 2015 11:23Edited time: 21 Sep, 2015 15:08

MOSCOW, 21 SEPTEMBER 2015 — /RT is disappointed with Ofcom’s decisions that found the channel to have breached the regulator’s broadcasting Code in four cases.  The “in-breach” findings concern two episodes of a commentary show, one of which did not air in the UK, and a documentary about refugees in eastern Ukraine, which was based on eyewitness testimonies./

/“We are shocked and disappointed in Ofcom's decision. The film about refugees was based entirely on first-hand accounts of the war victims,”/ said RT’s editor in chief Margarita Simonyan.

Ofcom ruled that RT documentary /Ukraine’s Refugees/ , which did not generate a single complaint from the audience but was assessed on Ofcom’s own initiative, and which was based on the accounts of refugees fleeing war in south-eastern Ukraine, had violated the due impartiality clause. The regulator stated that the authors didn’t sufficiently represent the Ukrainian government’s point of view, even though it unambiguously stated in the film that Kiev /“denied all charges of crimes against civilians”/.

Three of the four /“in-breach”/ judgments pertained to two episodes of /The TruthSeeker/, a commentary program that was closed in July 2014. One episode referred to an independent but unofficial investigation, which suggested that a BBC report might have staged some elements of a chemical attack in Syria, and replaced reference to /“napalm”/ with the phrase /“chemical weapons”/ in an interview with a Syrian doctor. BBC did acknowledge having edited the audio track while stating that /“it is common in broadcasting to edit spoken contributions to ensure maximum clarity.”/ In its ruling, Ofcom declined to consider the evidence that supported the statements made in /The TruthSeeker/, about the BBC report in question.  In Ofcom’s view, RT had exaggerated the significance of the independent inquiry and based on that exaggeration has misled the audience. 

written by BlackCatte

When challenged by blogger Robert Stuart , the BBC claimed this disparity was due to the snipping and overlaying of the raw audio in different ways. Commentators differ on how plausible this is, and we won’t get into that here. But even if true this “explanation” does not in any way clear the BBC of the charge of manipulation. Here is the reason they gave for removing the words “chemical weapons” from their original broadcast of the footage on August 29 (our emphasis):

“…The phrase “chemical weapon” was taken out of the news piece because by the time it was broadcast it was *known that this was an incendiary bomb* that had been used in the attack. Ian Pannell mentions this on two occasions in his script prior to the clip of Dr. Rola. *To have included her speculation that this could have been a “chemical weapon” ran a considerable risk of being incredibly misleading and confusing to the audience*, not least because the incident happened within days of an alleged chemical attack in Damascus….”  

Sunday, October 04, 2015

My heroes and yours?

You might be aware of the recent video conference call by Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald etc. It was well covered for most of the Democracy Now broadcast of 1/10/15.

Here is the link: http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2015/10/1/video_edward_snowden_glenn_greenwald_david

https://twitter.com/Snowden
Perhaps you, dear readers, might become followers!