09 July 2003

BBC bias watch

[source, source]
So I just listened to a BBC World News Service radio report on Iran and the student movement (Julian Marshal was the anchor that hour). It focused on how much better things are in Iran since the revolution, on reformers in the Iranian parliament, and the emphasis was on the young people just wanting change to go faster than was reasonable. They did mention some arrests, but the focus was on how much freer everyone is in Iran these days. From the BBC report, one would have *absolutely no understanding of the reasons* behind the protests, except that they're ungrateful that progress isn't going faster than it is (but how things have improved! - great emphasis was placed on a split between the young people who just don't get it and the older people who were around in the early days of the revolution and understand just how good things are in Iran now). *Completely* unmentioned were the Mullahs (or Ayatollahs); on the BBC website's Middle East page the only stories on Iran are ones pertaining to the "positive" talks between the IAEA and Iran on its nuclear program, mourning the death of the twins, and one on a movement leader who's been released. Absolutely nothing mentioning threatened massacre by the government that shut down protests planned for today. And one wonders why Europeans might have a different viewpoint on the Middle East than we do. Well, opinions are shaped by the information one has - or doesn't have
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French students risk food poisoning because of strike

[source]
*Big Mac attacks L'attac* In response to the ongoing strikes by its catering staff, school bosses at Robespierre secondary school in Epinay-sur-Seine ordered in Macdonalds. The strikers, rather than getting the support of their hungry charges, found themselves trying to block the delivery with the help of teachers, but failed. The children got their _Royale avec Fromage_. The strike collapsed. Reports suggest however that the pupils are calling for more strikes.
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Who do they think they are, US Congressmen?

[source]
*Open skies: Uproar as Nobel prize winner arrested in Paris scuffle* Two British MEPs were arrested recently following a scrap with French police. Ulster MEP and Peace Prize winner John Hume and UK Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott were trying to get to Strasbourg on Air France. Big mistake. Told that the flights were full, again, and they would have to fly via another EU airport , again they attempted a shimmy through security - with dire consequences. Both MEPs were arrested by les Flics and banged up. Cue uproar in the EU plenary as member after member denounced the French State carrier and vowed never to support the Strasbourg home of Parliament again.
Posted by orbital at 12:29 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

EU credibility watch

Marta Andreasen, the former senior auditor of the European Commission, is awaiting her fate after exposing the EC's accounting system as "open to fraud" in the summer of 2002. ??The Sprout?? reports that two members of the commission who will judge her on the charge of making her complaints about lax accounting public. The EU Court of Auditors can only fully validate 5% [[_five percent!_]] of the money spent by the European Commission. On the commission to judge her case are a former chief of staff for Edith Cresson, under whose reign the European Commission was brought down by corruption charges and another official is currently under investigation for another massive fraud with Italian Mafia links. Hmmm, I wonder how they'll vote.
Posted by orbital at 12:23 PM | View 0 TrackBacks | Trackback URL

Liberty in Iran

Today is the big day for anti-mullahocracy efforts in Iran. Winds of Change has a good set of posts on the subject and Pejman Yousefzadeh has been covering the story for a long time. It is time for Iran to claim a place among the adult nations by creating a self ordered society of liberty and law and I support the people of Iran in their efforts to do this.
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