Sri Lankan election marred by propaganda
President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s election campaign was coloured by the blatant abuse of state resources says Sanjana Hattotuwa
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The Times pays tribute to Baghdad fixer
‘Some saw a flash. All I saw were my things flying across the room’ ‘“Yasser” was the first thing that I heard Haider say. “Where is Yasser?” Haider and Yasser, two brothers, have worked for The Times since the invasion in 2003. I had sent Yasser on an errand and he was due back soon.’
No-one reading yesterday’s dispatch from The Times Baghdad bureau chief could have failed to get caught up in the search for Yasser. The paper’s driver was missing following a bomb blast in the Iraqi capital. When I opened my paper this morning it was the first story I looked for, but there was no happy ending. Instead the papers editor, James Harding paid tribute to a brave and generous colleague.
The foreign editor Richard Beeston goes behind the story to explain the key role that fixers play in enabling Western news organisation to report the news. Beeston spotlights the “heroic service of a small, dedicated army of Iraqis — drivers, fixers and translators. With little or no experience of reporting, they are ready to risk their lives every day to get the news”.
Yasser was just one of 36 Iraqis killed and 80 wounded in the three co-ordinated bomb blasts in Baghdad on 25 January. The New York Times At War blog also pays tribute.
Line up of libel reform working group announced
The full membership of the Justice Department’s libel working group, which convenes tomorrow (28 January), has been announced. The working group will be chaired by Rowena Collins-Rice, Director-General, Democracy, Constitution and Law and Chief Legal Officer at the Ministry of Justice.
The members are:
David Banks (Media Law Consultant) @DBanksy
Tracey Brown (Sense About Science) @freedebate
Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (Chief Executive of the Medical Research Council)
Desmond Browne QC (Barrister, 5 Raymond Buildings)
Rod Christie-Miller (Partner and Chief Executive at Schillings, Solicitors)
Robin Esser (Executive Managing Editor, Daily Mail)
Jo Glanville (Editor, Index on Censorship) @Indoncensorship
Jonathan Heawood (Director, English PEN) @jheawood
Tony Jaffa (Head of the Media Team at Foot Anstey, Solicitors)
Sarah Jones (Head of Litigation and Intellectual Property, BBC)
Marcus Partington (Chair of Media Lawyers Association, and Legal Director, Mirror Group Newspapers)
Gillian Phillips (Director of Editorial Legal Services, The Guardian)
Gavin Phillipson (Professor at Durham Law School)
Mark Stephens (Partner at Finers Stephens Innocent, Solicitors) @markslarks
Andrew Stephenson (Partner at Carter Ruck, Solicitors)
Paul Tweed (Senior Partner at Johnsons, Solicitors)
John Witherow (Editor, Sunday Times)
Zambia: Student leaders threatened at gunpoint by MP
A Zambian MP allegedly stormed a television studio and threatened student union leaders at gunpoint. It is claimed Chishimba Kambwili and fellow Patriotic Front (PF) sympathisers menaced University of Zambia Student’s Union leaders, Antonio Mwanza and Stanford Kabwata who were appearing as guests on a MUVI TV programme on 19 January 2010. Police in Lusaka opened an investigation after MUVI management made a complaint and recorded a ‘warn and caution statement’ by the minister on 25 January. In a statement, the TV station said that they are “in possession of footage of Mr. Kambwili’s aggressive and unruly conduct against the two defenceless guests.”