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Even after 23 years with the BBC, and during a 41 year journalistic career, for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, two key areas have always proved notoriously difficult – revealing corruption, and stories about wrong-doing in defence establishments – with the latter more and more in the news now.
Natural Resources Wales (NRW), for example, has an ‘anti-bribery and corruption policy’ and notes that “The Bribery Act 2010 introduced new offences and penalties for bribery”.
The ‘Welsh Government Counter Fraud and Corruption Policy’ declares: “The Welsh Government has a zero tolerance to Fraud and Corruption”.
These are all fine words, and I have no evidence of corruption in either of these organisations, but there can be a distinct difference between what is said and what is done.
Of course there is no written confirmation in an email or otherwise that bribery is taking place, even though you know it’s happening – so you must turn to things like secret recordings to prove that money is changing hands.
The problems are different (although no less severe) in proving that bad things (perhaps bullying) are taking place in a defence establishment.
Here they welcome media reporting but only of CERTAIN events, and they strictly control the information that is given and who gives it.
It is proclaimed: “All contact with the media or communication in public by members of the Armed Forces and MOD civilians must be authorised in advance”.
It is, therefore, amazingly difficult to establish a legally water-tight case for worrying events which you KNOW are underway.
Once more then you must rely on secret filming, or internal sources who tell you what’s going on.
In China for instance, journalistic inquiries have revealed that five current or former commanders in the Rocket Force of the People’s Liberation Army were removed from their roles in December amid reports that corruption had resulted in missiles loaded with water instead of fuel.
Even more alarmingly, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that China’s most advanced nuclear attack submarine sank in May while sitting at a pier in the city of Wuhan, and the cause is unknown.
Then there is Italy where the penetration of criminal gangs like the mafia into organisations, is well known
On one occasion the police there had to get permission for a wire-tapped phone conversation and in it a crook says: “Once she is on the council we can do what the fuck we want”.
Long live secret recordings like these – sometimes journalists like me have to use them too!
Some of the major stories Phil has covered over the years (many of which involved corruption), as he was gripped by the rare neurological condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in the book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order it now!
Tomorrow ‘Wordplay part two ‘ – how during that career the correct use of words has been paramount for Phil, but now comes a new book which is challenging negative notions of linguistic transfer such as so-called ‘Americanisation’.
