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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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 Posted: Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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I'd say that was him just putting a cat amongst the pigeons, but it's probably more a case of a tiger amongst the eagles! |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:15 pm Post subject: |
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i watched newnight the other night and nearly three months after georgias aggression against south ossetia, followed by russias retaliation against it to protect its citizens, of which the bbc said at the time 'the russians are calling it a peace enforcement operation, it's the kind of newspeak that would make george orwell proud', they've finally realised what most of us knew all along! three cheers for the bbc ...
| Quote: | BBC wakes up to Georgian ‘war crimes’
The BBC says it has obtained evidence that the Georgian army may have committed war crimes during August’s military offensive in South Ossetia. Britain’s flagship broadcaster heard testimonies during the first unrestricted visit to South Ossetia by a foreign news organisation since the conflict ended.
Photographs taken by Russian journalists in the first days of the conflict tell a disturbing story. But it is only now - more than two months later - that the world is looking at these pictures and reflecting on their meaning. For many, they paint a picture of indiscriminate force used against unarmed civilians. It's a side of the story international broadcasters have been accused of ignoring.
A report by the BBC’s Newsnight programme suggests Georgia’s armed forces committed war crimes during their attack in August. The BBC says the evidence proving this comes from the first unrestricted visit to South Ossetia by their correspondent.
Taisiya Sitnik, or Taya, as the BBC reporter calls her, had spent many hours under the rubble of her apartment block in Tskhinval, with no food or water, in a dress covered with the blood of her dead son.
She had already shared her tragic story once with an RT correspondent, three days into the conflict. More than two months later the BBC is finally telling her story.
Richard Sakwa, a professor of politics and international relations at the University of Kent in the UK, said he’d been inundated with messages complaining about how the Western media were covering the war.
“I’m a great believer in popular common sense - the amount of emails I received and other messages - because people know I’m involved in these questions - was astonishing! And the overwhelming message was disgust at the initial coverage by the BBC (it later did an excellent job) and in particular also CNN and other major western media. So what we are seeing is officialdom catching up with what I think was a genuine sense down below that we weren’t being fed the truth from the start,” Prof. Sakwa said.
Until recently Georgia had been seen by many as a small state that suffered at the hands of its big neighbour. But that perception is slowly changing. Georgia’s president, who has portrayed himself as the West’s closest ally, now has to defend himself.
“We strongly deny accusation of war crimes - but of course, we are very open for any kind of comments, we are very open for any kind of investigation,” Mikhail Saakashvili said.
Even Britain’s foreign secretary, known for his unconditional support of Georgia, is now changing his tune.
“On my visit to Tbilisi, of course, I raised at the highest level in Georgia, the questions that have been asked and raised about war crimes and other military actions by the Georgian authorities,” David Miliband said.
And this shift in Western attitudes seems to have improved relations between Russia and the UK, which have been at their lowest for decades.
“I think there has been a shift in the British government’s position on Russia in the last month or so. And some of Miliband’s recent statements reflect that,” says Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform. |
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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the problem is that after so long the people who don't see this current report will just continue to think that it was Russia who was in the wrong.
If the BBC didn't know what was going on then they should have made that clear, but I don't believe for a minute that this is just some mistake. |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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no i don't think its a mistake either. i think what happened is at the time the bbc reflected the establishment position, russia the enemy - russian aggression. but over time the government have realised they can't maintain the lie, they've lost the propaganda war - people overwhelmingly knew the reality on this, and as details of more georgian crimes are revealed, the government have slowly started to change their position - because frankly, they were looking stupid to the rest of the world who were like 'what?!?!', and the bbc reflect the new government view in its coverage. if the government were still following the old line, i'm sure the bbc would be as well.
but i agree with you that people who were deluded in the first place as to who started the conflict will continue to be so. i mean, in america, mccain can still get away with calling it russian aggression - even though they've had debates in their version of our parliament where they've talked about who started it, even republicans have said it was georgia who started it. i don't blame mccain for lying, him using fear to rally supporters isn't surprising - but that the american media let him get away with calling it russian aggression, thats what i find really bad. |
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faceless
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Joined: 25 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:01 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think people were deluded as such, but definitely misinformed. But even otherwise intelligent people can be biased.
On another forum yesterday I saw someone post a comment that they wouldn't give a particular article credence because it wasn't from AP or Reuters or other similar source. It turned out the article was actually written by the guy who exposed Oliver North's involvment in the Iran-Contra scandal...
The point I'm making is that people want to trust their news-sources and will sometimes do that blindly - and the BBC know that. |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 5:09 pm Post subject: |
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| yeah sorry deluded was the wrong word. |
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luke
Joined: 11 Feb 2007
Location: by the sea
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:15 am Post subject: |
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