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During a 23 year career with the BBC, and 41 years in journalism, (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, has always been lucky enough to work in a free media environment where investigations could be undertaken to establish facts while in other countries the opposite is the case, which is today underlined by the ‘silence’ of Russia about the shooting down of a civilian aeroplane, and in China which has said its support for the country “has no limits”.
It is important to find out the FACTS, and allow journalists like me to do their work.
Allied with this is the knowledge that there are certain sources you can trust, and others that you cannot.
For example, a conversation overheard in the pub cannot be trusted (until you have the evidence), while reports in certain media outlets can be, and this is the case today as alway, on The Eye.
Reuters is a highly reputable news agency and it says it has FOUR sources that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane that crashed killing 38 people was downed by a Russian air defence system.
Euronews, citing Azerbaijani Government sources, reported that a preliminary investigation found a Russian surface-to-air missile was fired at the plane during drone air activity above Grozny, and that shrapnel had hit the plane as the missile exploded next to the aircraft mid-flight, while pictures showed the damage to the wreckage.
Separately an unnamed US official made a similar assessment, telling Reuters there are early indications a Russian anti-aircraft system may have been involved.
Mobile phone footage outside which has been circulating online showed the plane suddenly making a steep descent before smashing into the ground in a fireball.
Inside people could be heard praying as oxygen masks were lowered in the plane’s cabin in footage filmed by a passenger before the plane went down.
Meanwhile a spokesperson for Vladimir Putin has declared that there is “nothing to add” to what happened.
Draw your own conclusions.
We should not, either, ignore past comments by Xi Jinping in China where media freedom is also severely curtailed.
On May 16, 2024, Mr Putin and Mr Xi set a new record by concluding their 43rd meeting, marking the 75-year anniversary of China-Russia diplomatic relations.
The meeting witnessed affirmation of the “comprehensive partnership” and “strategic cooperation” between the two sides, as well as a reiteration of their mutual contempt for “closed-door military and political alliances” led by the West.
On the Ukraine war, the message was clear and consistent – that the central node of tension is the existence of an unsustainable security architecture in the European Union (EU).
Overall, the Putin-Xi meeting, just like many of their meetings in the past, indicated that the China-Russia relationship is not just a ‘marriage of convenience’ – it is indeed a ‘no limits partnership’ just short of a conventional alliance.
A free and independent media might be able to find out what happened to the airliner, but this does not exist in either China or Russia and it is emphasised by what has just happened in Hong Kong (HK) where stiff jail sentences have been handed down.
Among those who received lengthy prison sentences was Gwyneth Ho.
She is a journalist-turned-politician who rose to fame when she live-streamed gangs attacking protesters in 2019 while the police looked on.
Ms Ho was sentenced to seven years in jail (like her, most of the activists had already spent four years behind bars while awaiting trial).
The punishments, though, drew swift criticism from abroad.
America said the activists were “jailed for peacefully participating in normal political activity”, while the EU called the sentencing “another unprecedented blow against fundamental freedoms, democratic participation and pluralism” in HK.
Still, there are those who think the activists got off lightly. Chris Tang, HK’s security chief, suggested the Chinese Government was considering whether to appeal against some of the punishments in the hope of making them stiffer still, because the ‘principal offenders’ in a national-security trial could have been given a life term.
Related to this outrageous event is what has happened to the media publisher and pro-democracy campaigner 76 year old Jimmy Lai.
Mr LaI (a UK citizen) was arrested four years ago, and held in solitary confinement for more than two of them. He was charged with one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion, and pleaded not guilty to all charges.
But this is only the latest action taken by China in attacking media freedoms, as well as minorities.
The huge country has NO democracy or an independent judiciary, the media outside state control is EXTREMELY limited, and it does NOT respect human rights.
The Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC) of China (which was deemed an “illegal organisation”) has highlighted the reality of what is happening inside it.
Their report, said that journalists faced physical assault, hacking, online trolling and visa denials, as media freedom in China declined at a “breakneck speed”.
Censorship has been implemented and mandated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Government officials censor content for largely political reasons, such as in order to curtail opposition (as has happened in HK), as well as to block information about events which are unfavourable to the CCP, like, for instance, the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, but also so that officials can maintain control over the populace.
Journalists like me must fall into line, and not question official policy.
Otherwise, the authorities fear, they might discover uncomfortable facts, like Russia shooting down a civilian aeroplane…
The memories of Phil’s decades long award-winning career in journalism (when media freedoms were all-important) as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition, Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
