25 Jan 2012 | Leveson Inquiry
Investigative reporter Mazher Mahmood was recalled to the Leveson Inquiry today and quizzed over the reasons for his 1989 departure from the Sunday Times.
Mahmood, also known as the Fake Sheikh for the disguise he wears while investigating, told the Inquiry in December that he and then managing editor (news) Roy Greenslade had “had a disagreement”.
In a blog post written after Mahmood’s first appearance at the Inquiry, Greenslade wrote that Mahmood had “falsely blamed the news agency and then tried to back up his version of events by entering the room containing the main frame computer in order to alter the original copy.”
Having been found out, Greenslade wrote, Mahmood “rightly understood that he would have been dismissed” and so wrote a letter of resignation.
Mahmood, who returned to the Sunday Times last autumn after the News of the World closed in July 2011, regretfully admitted today that he “foolishly” tried to blame the news agency for his mistake.
He added later that a recent claim made by former Sunday Times news editor Michael Williams that Mahmood had offered a financial bribe to staff in the newspaper computer room to falsify his copy was “completely untrue”.
Mahmood told the Inquiry that Greenslade has since been “very critical” of his investigations: “Ever since he has displayed obsessive hostility towards me. There were run-ins over several stories.”
Tuning into the Inquiry, Greenslade tweeted:
Grilled by Lord Justice Leveson and counsel David Barr on the reliability of his sources, Mahmood said: “I’ve had front-page splashes from crack addicts, prostitutes, all sorts of sources”, adding that “one crack addict stole my tape recorder.”
A prosecution arising from Mahmood’s 2002 News of the World splash claiming there was a plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham was dropped when prosecution lawyers decided that Florim Gashi, the key witness (one of Mahmood’s sources), was unreliable.
Also appearing this morning was RMT union leader Bob Crow, who claimed his union had been a victim of “victimisation”. He described being doorstepped by reporters and photographers from the Sun, who said to him: “What’s it like not to get to go to work? You stopped people going to work this week so get a taste of your own medicine.”
He was also asked about a Mail on Sunday story from 2003 showing that he had got a scooter to work owing to tube failures. The Inquiry was told that the registration identity of the scooter was blagged from the DVLA and then passed on to private investigator Steve Whittamore, who passed it on to the paper.
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25 Jan 2012 | Middle East and North Africa
Stateless protesters face deportation after demonstrations in Kuwait demanding citizenship turned violent. Kuwaiti authorities revealed that as a punishment, the stateless “Bedoon” population, those without passports, would be forced out of the country. Authorities also warned that any Bedoon from the army and police force would be dismissed if they or their children attended the protests, and those involved in the protests would be evicted from any state housing.
There are at least 120,000 Bedoon jinsiyya (without nationality) in Kuwait denied the right to obtain birth, death, marriage or divorce certificates. They have no access to public education, health care, housing or employment.
Kuwait’s Interior ministry faced down the protests with tear gas, smoke bombs, water cannons, bats, humiliation, harassment, arrests and trials. Back in February and March 2011, around 5000 stateless protested in isolated areas of Taimaa, Sulaibiya, and Ahmady for their rights to documents, education, health care, employment, and most importantly naturalisation. Over 100 men were sent to trial for ‘illegal protesting’, ‘disobedience of police orders’, and ‘violence against policemen.’
In December the protests began again and every Friday, Kuwait’s police repressed them more and more violently. Kuwait University professor Dr Ebtehal Al-Khatib and other members of the Kuwaiti association of Human Rights reported the terror they witnessed in Taimaa. A video of a stateless woman being beaten by a riot policeman enraged the Bedoon even further. According to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai, around 108 protesters were arrested on 13 January. They are still in detention as the prosecution keeps delaying their release.
Kuwaiti authorities justified the oppression saying the protests were not “authorised”. Some stateless activists tried to get permission to demonstrate but their requests were rejected. The Interior Ministry has repeatedly stated that only citizens are allowed to protest. It also claims that the brutality demonstrated by riot police was merely a response to violence by protesters.
Several Kuwaiti activists condemned the threats of deportation. Academic Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar suggested these threats were not serious, but were made up to frighten protesters.
Unconfirmed reports by stateless activists indicate that detained protesters were mistreated and beaten in prison. For over a week after Fridy 13 January, Taimaa and Sulaibiya areas — where large numbers of Bedoon live — were under siege by riot police.
Activists such as Nawaf Al-Bader and Mousaed Al-Shammari have reported on Twitter how policemen set checkpoints questioning drivers in an attempt to stop people joining ptotests.
Mona Kareem is a stateless poet, journalist, and a blogger at monakareem.blogspot.com
25 Jan 2012 | Asia and Pacific, Index Index, minipost
New restrictions are being imposed on the Burmese media, despite earlier calls from the country’s censor chief to ease restrictions. Ahead of April’s by-elections, Tint Swe, director of the Burmese Press Scrutiny and Registration Division, warned newspaper editors that “action will be taken” against publications which do not adhere to guidelines from the censorship board. In October, Swe made calls for greater media freedom and the abolition of censorship.
24 Jan 2012 | Leveson Inquiry
Ryan Parry, the Daily Mirror journalist whose byline appeared on the libellous coverage of wrongly arrested Bristol landlord Chris Jefferies said the episode was a “watershed moment” for the British media.
“All we can do is learn from this and improve for the future,” Parry told the Leveson Inquiry. The Daily Mirror was fined £50,000 and The Sun £18,000 respectively for contempt of court over its coverage of Jefferies. It was revealed today that the Sun has withdrawn its Supreme Court appeal against the contempt ruling, while the Mirror’s appeal is ongoing.
Parry said he was pleased with how he had conducted himself on the coverage of Jefferies, who was wrongly arrested on suspicion of murdering his tenant Joanna Yeates in December 2010.
“If he came across…as an eccentric, it’s because the evidence suggested he was,” Parry said of the correspondence he had had with Jefferies’ former students. One story carried the headline “Nutty Professor”, while in others Jefferies was referred to an “oddball”.
Gary O’Shea, a journalist at the Sun who had also covered the case, told the Inquiry that their coverage should have been more “neutral and dispassionate”, and said that the paper’s libel settlement with Jefferies was an acceptance of this.
“We don’t often go wrong, we don’t often make mistakes, and when we do they’re honest mistakes,” O’Shea said. The paper’s publishing director, Stephen Waring, also took responsibility for a headline in a story about Jefferies titled “Obsessed by death”, and apologised to the former teacher.
Earlier in the day, the Inquiry heard from a selection of women’s groups who discussed the sexualisation of women in media. Anna Van Heeswijk, of pressure group Object, said the redtops’ page 3 feature existed “for the sole purpose” of women being sex objects.
Van Heeswijk added that violence is often trivialised and eroticised in the papers, and pushed for “consistent” regulation of print media, arguing that the press should abide by the taste and decency watershed that determines what can be broadcast on television before 9pm.
Heather Harvey of Eaves Housing for Women told the Inquiry that media coverage of women and the sexist abuse they may encounter online “actually curtails and limits” women’s freedom of expression and their ability to engage in public debate.
Overhyped headlines and inaccurate stories were also slammed today. Inayat Bunglawala of Muslim group Engage accused the Daily Express and the Daily Star of being “the most egregious offenders” in relation to Britain’s Muslim community. He and Robert Jay QC read through a series of headlines from the two redtops — one from the Express read “Christmas is banned, it offends Muslims” — which Bunglawala said were aimed at increasing hatred and prejudice against Muslims.
Bunglawala noted that he got a one-paragraph clarification after complaining to the Press Complaints Commission about a story in the Star that claimed remembrance poppies were banned in Muslim areas. He added that it was a “very odd situation” that the Express and the Star are not members of the PCC.
Fiona Fox of the Science Media Centre praised Britain’s “excellent” science journalists but blamed sub-editors for writing inaccurate headlines. She cited a report in the Independent today headlined “Once they were blind, now they see. Patients cured by stem cell ‘miracle'”, which describes how two blind people have shown signs of being able to see again.
“Within science extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, but in the newsroom it’s the exact opposite,” Fox said, lamenting media reports of preliminary findings. “It would solve a lot of problems if journalists just didn’t over-claim for these stories.”
The Inquiry continues tomorrow with evidence from journalists Roy Greenslade and David Allen Green, RMT union leader Bob Crow and further testimony from investigative journalist Mazher Mahmood.
Follow Index on Censorship’s coverage of the Leveson Inquiry on Twitter – @IndexLeveson
