BBC obstructs Gaza appeal

The BBC continues to refuse to air a TV-fundrasing appeal for Gaza by a coalition of British charities (DEC). The BBC argues that such an appeal might risk its impartiality and fears that aid may not reach its intended recipients. The latter point has already been dealt with sufficiently by DEC to the evident satisfaction of ITV, channel 4 and Five who will air the TV appeal on Monday.

But what I don't understand is why impartiality was not an issue for the BBC in previous DEC appeals? Why is the BBC now afraid of being seen of taking a political stance on Gaza but wasn't on other conflicts? Why was the BBC so confident of viewers' ability to recognise humanitarian appeals for what they are but isn't so sure regarding the Gaza campaign? If there is indeed any perception of bias, it's the perception that the BBC considers the blood of a certain people cheaper than others, a perception especially felt by the Arab audiences of its relatively new Arabic TV service.

BBC's refusal comes after its one-sided coverage of Israel's invasion of Gaza having fallen prey to the Zionist propaganda machine, which imposed restrictions on journalists reporting firsts hand. Instead, journalist were constantly supplied with Israeli spokesmen to give their side of the story. Even without the restrictions, the wider trend of BBC's coverage of the Palestinian struggle tends to be dominated by the Israeli point of view. The same can be said for most of the major media outlets. Still, there has been few surprises in the coverage of Israel's agression like the timely opinion piece by Rashid Khalidi published in the Murdoch-owned New York Times. There was also the frank interview by Alex Thomson on Channel 4 News.

Galloway on Gaza

George Galloway on the double-standards of Western foreign towards Israel's war crimes in Gaza and its radicalising effect on Muslims. The latter point was already discussed by Robert Fisk in the Independent.

Bush: Do as we say but not as we do!

George Bush has warned Russia of international isolation if it does not withdraw its troops from neighbouring Georgia. Speaking at a White House press conference, he accused Russia of "bullying and intimidation", adding that it was unacceptable "way to conduct foreign policy in the 21st Century". He also said "Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected".

A bit hypocritical coming from a man who went half way across the world to occupy another country on a false premise. Prior his invasion of Iraq in 2003, Bush ignored similar warnings from Russia and others which predicted continued violence in the country and wider instability in the region. Russia seems to be returning the favour: "If you can do it, so can we".

At least Russia on this occasion was responding to real facts on the ground rather than imagined threats. The current crisis in the Caucasus region was triggered when Georgia tried to reclaim the breakaway region of South Ossetia, sparking Russian intervention who already had troops in the region as part of the peacekeeping force agreed between the two countries in 1992.

It is obvious the Georgians weren't expecting Russia to widen the conflict beyond South Ossetia and into Georgia proper. But they were expecting some sort of help from their Western allies, especially the US who is making good use of Georgians troops in Iraq. The best Bush could do was sending them a humanitarian aid shipment as well as sending back half of their 4,000 troops from Iraq, so that they can be sent on to South Ossetia!

Clearly, the Georgians were expecting a bit more than that, otherwise they won't have dared taking on the Russians. They took a risk and lost the gamble giving Russia the perfect excuse to respond to America's proxy war in the region, something Russia planned to do for a long time.

For a while, Russia has been unhappy about NATO's expansion eastwards and the Western-Backed changes of governments in a host of former Soviet Union countries including the Ukraine and Georgia and the recent cessation of Kosovo from Serbia. Russia feels Kosovo's independence would set a precedent for other minorities like the Chechens who have been fighting for independence from Russia. If that wasn't enough, the US and Poland signed a defence deal, part of the "Son of star Wars" anti-missile defence system, during the conflict in Georgia.

Some say this conflict also worked in favour of the US who can now justify their anti-misslie system even more and it also gives certain American politicians the chance to look tough on foreign policy issues. It may even work in the favour of Georgia who have recently been denied membership of NATO. Georgia argued membership of NATO could have prevented the fighting but things now look set to change.

Turkish Soaps Condemned in the Arab World

The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al-Sheikh, has recently issued a fatwa condemning Turkish soaps which are currently being broadcast in the Middle East. This followed an earlier fatwa by a Syrian Imam banning worshippers from wearing the soaps' T-Shirts in his mosque.

The soap dramas in question are "The Lost Years" and "Noor" , which are dubbed in colloquial Syrian Arabic. Both dramas have become extremely popular in the Arab world in the last few months. 'Noor' in particular has become an immediate hit with Arab audiences after it initially flopped in its native Turkey. The soap drama which airs on the MBC channel deals with the relationship between the lead female character, Noor, and her love interest, Muhannad.

Apparently, the soap has led to a rise in the number of divorce cases in the Middle East as women pester their husbands to be like their TV idol. The Saudi Mufti branded the soaps "evil" and "malicious", adding that "any TV station that airs them is against God and His Messenger (peace be upon him). These are serials of immorality. They are prepared by people who are specialists in crime and error, people who invite men and women to the devil."

Interestingly, the Dubai-based MBC TV channel is owned by members of the Saudi royal family and it is not the first time the channels has aired "immoral" programmes. Back in 2004, the channel was forced to indefinitely suspend its costly version of the reality TV show, Big Brother, after a wave of protests in Bahrain where the show was being filmed. The channel is also known for its usual mix of entertainment programmes, which certainly don't meet the strict standards of the religious authorities.

What's more, the artists that usually feature on some of these entertainment programmes are signed to the record label Rotana, another Saudi-owned enterprise. To be precise, it's owned by the multi-billionaire Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, who happens to own LBC, a Lebanese TV channel which has also come under fire for its popular reality show 'Star Academy'.

Update: A senior judge in Saudi Arabia has spoken out against "immoral" satellite TV programmes aired during the month of Ramadan. Controversially, he also ruled the permissibility of killing the owners of such TV stations. His comments were denounced and the judge later qualified his comments in a TV appearance.

Galloway on Somalia

George Galloway speaking extensively in Parliament (11/06/08) about the American-backed Ethiopian occupation of Somalia and the human rights abuses by the installed-warlord-government, who is partly financed by British tax payer.

The full transcript is available here.

BBC Memorial for Killed Journalists

The UN General Secretary, Ban Ki Moon, has today unvieled a memorial to journalists killed whilst doing their job. This comes only few days after the recent killings of two BBC journlists, Abdul Samad Rohani and Nasteh Dahir Faraah, in Afghanistan and Somalia respectively. Dhahir Farah was also the vice-president of The National Union of Somali Jourailsts (NUSOJ), a partner organistion to the pressure group, Reporters Without Borders (RSF). RSF describes Somalia as "Africa’s deadliest country for journalists". Of course, this is not the first time reporters are targeted in Somalia, dozens of local journalists have been guuned down in the last 18 months. The front line war coverage by Somali camermen was recognised last year by the Brtitish-based Rory Peck Trust who awarded their prestigious award to Farah Roble Aden for his frontline coverage of the Ethipian invasion.

Iraq's Stolen Billions

George Galloway speaks of the theft of Iraq's wealth since 2003 (2:30), and I previously posted on how the Iraq war has been privitised as the US adminstration outsourced many of its military operations and construction projects to mercenary private security companies like Blackwater. Now, the BBC's panorama progrmme looks into how £11.75 bn ($23bn) went missing. Much of the money has been lost in a web of inflated contracts with companies, many of which like Haliburton have links with the White House.