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Join the vigil to protest BBC's pro-war bias: 2 December
We have received a request to publicise a proposed candelight vigil outside the BBC, to demonstrate concern at the lack of impartial reporting of events in Iraq. You may send the organisers an e-mail to register your endorsement, or contact the CBF for further information."Dear friends,
"A group of us are organizing a peaceful candle light vigil in front of the BBC to protest at their failure to let antiwar voices onto their network.
"If you share our concerns over this bias, as recently illustrated by their appalling coverage of Falluja, then please help.
"The best way you can do this is of course to come to the vigil, you can also forward this email onto as many people as you can, put it on your organisation's website, or send an endorsement to us at acallforlight@mail.com
"Thank you very much for your help."
_______________________________________________________________________________
A Call for Light.
Vigil outside the BBC, Bush House, Aldwych, London.
Thursday, 2nd December between 5:30pm and 7:00pm.
The first barrage of modern warfare is not heard on the battlefield. Instead, it thunders forth from our TV screens and leaves trails of fiery words across the printed page.
It is often said that ‘the first casualty of war is truth’, but we rarely reflect on the bloody reality of these words. During war, more than at any other time, language is twisted, stretched, and degraded. 'Precision airstrikes', 'collateral damage', and 'friendly fire': all phrases thrown
over a tragedy like a blanket over a corpse; to blur uncomfortably sharp edges and make tolerable the ugly truth beneath.
The corpses are piling high in Iraq. A conservative estimate calculates 100,000 since our invasion; most killed by 'coalition' forces and most of them women and children (Iraq Mortality Survey, The Lancet, 29 October 2004). Our media continues to bury their bodies.
Who will speak for dead Iraqis when our media will not? Denied their voice, our dead brothers and sisters are 'unpeople': like our own fallen soldiers, just more lives lost to the fires of a 'war' that the UN Secretary-General condemns as 'illegal'. Almost as lost are the voices who oppose this bloody crime: 57%, according to a recent survey in the UK.
As George Orwell once wrote: 'Freedom of the Press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose.' A healthy democracy needs a free and investigative media, willing to view our own government with the same scepticism it accords official enemies. Objective reporting requires balance; not only between warring factions, but also between the powerful and the powerless. Our media must be held to this standard, so that no body
is hidden and no voice unheard.
Join with us, if you can, and help us shine a light on Iraq, on this 'war', and on ourselves.
All are welcome
* Please bring your family and friends.
* Please stand in silence, to mark the silence of the unreported and of the dead.
* Please come with candles, to light the truth and your own placards, to commemorate the dead in Iraq.
* Please come as an individual, leaving symbols of party or organisation affiliations at home.
Endorsements
============
Howard Zinn, Historian
Author of "A People's History of the United States"
William Blum, Historian
Author of "Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War
II"
Mickey Z, Author and Activist
Author of "The Seven Deadly Spins: Exposing the Lies Behind War Propaganda"
David Barsamian, founder and director of Alternative Radio (Boulder,
Colorado)
Author of "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile: Conversations with
Arundhati Roy"
Norman Solomon,
Writer, co-author of "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You"
Stephen Soldz, Coordinator, Psychoanalysts for Peace and Justice
Editor, Iraq Occupation and Resistance Report"
David Miller, Editor at spinwatch.org
Author of "TELL ME LIES: Propaganda and Media Distortion in the Attack on
Iraq"
David Cromwell, Editor at medialens.org
Author of "Private Planet: Corporate Plunder and the Fight Back"
Joanne Baker & Abdul-Haq Al-Ani, founders of Child Victims of War
Gabriele Zamparini & Lorenzo Meccoli, Filmmakers
Producers and Directors of the documentary "XXI Century"
Globalecho, Open Publishing for Independent JournalistsLINKSA Call for Light
Last modified: Friday, December 3, 2004
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Notices
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World Press Freedom Day
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World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
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A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
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The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Events
Public Service Broadcasting: Charting the Future
Media and democracy in today’s Italy: a meeting with Tana de Zulueta MP.
The 12th Vanunu annual benefit
Seminar on The Public Service Publisher: How would it work?
Journalism & Public Trust
Conferences
Programme of CPBF/NUJ events at ESF
European Social Forum
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Spin and Corporate Power: Seminar at Strathclyde University, 18/9 Nov. 2004
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