Sometimes, journalists and writers get
•jailed, •or beaten up
-• Or even killed ANNA POLITKOVSKAYA Killed, Russia 2006 VERONICA GUERIN Killed, Ireland 1996 Lopez de Lacalle killed, Spain, 2000 • That has never happened to me! • So I’m lucky.
• But, like many investigative journalists, I have faced threats and problems during my career that are perhaps more subtle
• Here are a few: 1. •LEGAL THREATS British minister Jonathan Aitken.
We exposed his arms deals with Saudi Arabia.
He sued us for libel, and threatened to ruin both me and the Guardian newspaper.
The trial cost millions. In the end, he lost and went to jail. But I had many sleepless nights! A crooked oil company called TRAFIGURA also used expensive lawyers against us They gagged us, but in the end we won, and were free to print How did we resist and win?
*Key method: cross-border co-operation with others.
We worked with
• Norwegian TV • Dutch newspaper Volkskrant • BBC TV • Greenpeace • Friendly British politicians • TWITTER! Another way to deal with the law Confidential Documents and The Interbrew Case
BOYCOTT THE BEER! 2.
•Big Corporations
the wall of silence The Guardian exposes Prince Bandar for receiving £1billion ($2 billion) • Key method [once again!] • CROSS-BORDER CO-OPERATION • Fellow journalists in Sweden • Fellow journalists in Romania • Fellow journalists in South Africa
• We were able to get key information that exposed a network of bribes.
• [But then UK politicians covered it all up!]
• Once again
Cross-border co-operation defeated
Legal threats 3.
• Next problem
• Bosses who control what you publish
Tiny Rowland, international criminal – and owner of “The Observer” Which is the journalist?
Al Pacino Lowell Bergman
A TV company betrayed a whistleblower for fear of Big Tobacco. Resigning on principle?? A good idea?? But you might get fired A nyway! 4.
•Spies and spooks Mark Hosenball – deported from UK as a “threat to national security” BBC VETTING
11 Nov 2001: The Observer Focus Special: THE IRAQI CONNECTION: After a month-long investigation, David Rose reports on the links between Saddam and the 11 September hijackers
He is one of Iraq's intelligence officers… whom Mohamed Atta flew to meet in Prague five months before piloting his hijacked aircraft into the World Trade Centre……
The Observer has learnt…..
Senior US intelligence sources say …
Parts of British intelligence had reached the same conclusion…..
A top US analyst - a serving intelligence official - told The Observer……..
CIA sources have confirmed ……
The senior US intelligence source said ….. Spies and their lies
David Rose
New Statesman 27 September 2007 “To my everlasting regret, I strongly supported the Iraq invasion. I had become a recipient of what we now know to have been sheer disinformation about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and his purported "links" with al-Qaeda” 5
Conspiracy
Theories.
Mohamme d Fayed
10 Aug 2007: Daily Mail
I'm God , says renegade spy
After a period of reflection following his jailing for breaching the Official Secrets Act, Mr Shayler has concluded that he is the Messiah. Julian Assange
Victim of a conspiracy?.