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During 23 years with the BBC, and in a 42 year journalistic career (when he was trained to use clear and simple language, avoiding jargon), for our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry, a free media reporting uncomfortable truths about individuals or organisations has always been pivotal, but Donald Trump has accused journalists of being an “enemy of the American people”, and now lawyers are preparing a multibillion dollar lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) parent company Dow Jones (DJ) over “fake” news about his alleged links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
What’s going on?
It has always been fundamental to me to have an independent, free, media to give the unvarnished truth to people about high-profile individuals or organisations.
But now it seems this iron rule is being bent (or even broken altogether) all over the world, and a major offender is in the richest democracy in the world, where freedom of expression is even written into the constitution!
I’ll come to that worrying development in a moment, but first let’s start with what is happening elsewhere…
There is, for example, the case of Mukesh Chandrakar, who was a freelance journalist in the Chhattisgarh state of India (ANOTHER democracy!), and reported on alleged corruption in the construction industry on his YouTube channel, Bastar Junction.
After his investigations he was killed, and police found his body in a septic tank in the state’s Bijapur district on January 3 – he had suffered blunt-force injuries to his head and ribs, had a broken neck and his heart had been ripped out, India Today reported.
Mr Chandrakar’s death is said to be linked to a recent investigation into a road construction project in the Bastar region, which led to a government inquiry. Four people have been arrested, including three of his relatives.
Before this appalling incident, the investigative journalist Jeff German was murdered by former Nevada politician Robert Telles. Mr German had covered the area for 40 years. Most recently, he had worked as a reporter on the investigations team for the Review-Journal. He also contributed to the newspaper’s true crime podcast, ‘Mobbed Up’.
His target, Telles, had lost his primary re-election bid, after Mr German had reported allegations of bullying (which has been levelled at me), favouritism, mismanagement, and an “inappropriate relationship” with a staffer. Mr German was found stabbed to death at his home, with Telles detained by armed police officers, and he was found guilty of first degree murder.
In 2018, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) listed the names of 58 journalists who had been killed. Late last year the CPJ said that 64 journalists have been killed since October in Gaza alone.
I would never pretend to be in these people’s league for their bravery, and adherence to bringing out the truth, but there are worrying parallels.
For example, insults such as “He’s a bully” and “he’s obsessed with me” which Telles said about Mr German, are also words that have been hurled at me.
The editorial cartoonist at the paper he worked on published an illustrated tribute to Mr German, calling him, “one of the finest investigative reporters in the country. His job was to shine the light on the darkness”. The mission statement of my website, The Eye, is: “Finding Light in Darkness”. A threat has also been made on social media.
After it was said that my reporting was “negative journalism”, a Marc Winchester, wrote on Twitter/X: “I’ll whack him (me)“. This was described as a ‘joke’ by Mr Winchester, who has claimed he was a multi-millionaire but ran a convenience store, yet it was still reported to the police who mounted an investigation.
I have (almost) become used to the abuse I am forced to endure, with the words ‘bully’, or ‘bullying’ often wheeled out online.
The latter was seized on, for example, in response to a piece I wrote concerning a television ‘reporter’ who had posted pictures of herself on social media in skimpy clothes, and is typical of the insults I constantly receive. This was the obnoxious pronouncement: “Your article on Ellie Pitt was bordering on mysogynistic bullying, a really pathetic article written by a bitter individual who was a complete failiure as a BBC correspondent and also loved bashing the Catholic Church with your disgraceful Panorama programme”.
Then there’s ‘obsessed’ or ‘obsessive’.
The ‘comedian’ and failed media executive, Huw Marshall, likes to accuse me of those things, in his tirades condemning items I have written about his extraordinary exploits. He has used Twitter/X to say that I am an “obsessive coward”, linking the inaccurate comment to a piece I had published about one of his unsuccessful ventures.
Mr Marshall has declared, too, that he has a number of different Twitter/X accounts, but says he reserves one for articles which may bother me, saying: “@marshallmedia is where I post Everton related stuff and things that upsets Phil Parry”.
Remarks like these are, though, unfortunately par for the course, and a regular part of life for an investigative journalist like me, Mr German or Mr Chandrakar. I suffer constant abuse online, and my Wikipedia entry is regularly vandalised.
In one a person took out: ‘…online investigative website…’, and added: ‘…personal blog called…’. Bizarrely, though, in the ‘career’ section, it still said: ‘…launched his own investigative website “The Eye”…’. This may sound insignificant, but actually it is VERY important, because it effectively says that a story does not contain facts at all, but is a ‘personal view’, and I am glad to say the new addition was quickly spotted, so that the entry could be put back to its original form by one of my supporters.
Other attacks have been cruder – for example in the past the word “knobhead” has been added after my name. I have been compared on Twitter/X to the comedy broadcaster Alan Partridge by a Sion Tomos Owen whose blog describes him as: “…a bilingual TV and Radio presenter, illustrator, writer and creative workshop tutor…”. Mr Owen said in Welsh: “There’s no way that this website (The Eye) is for real?! It’s as if a Take a Break (light magazine) story has been edited by Alan Partridge” (laughing emoji).
Mr Owen’s comment follows a familiar pattern, and accusations of being ‘misogynistic’ or ‘misogynist’ are a constant line among those who fire off offensive comments, if factual stories are published with the focus of them happening to be women, yet these are potentially libellous words, and the description is provably wrong.
I have also been accused online (incorrectly) of being a “bastard” (many times), an “anti-devolutionist wanker”, “pure scum”, a “liar” (also many times) a “little git”, and (correctly) a “nosey git”, “irritating”, or a “nuisance”. But these come amid many others. Too many, in fact, to mention.
A conman I exposed launched a furious diatribe against me – contacting as well my friends and family on social media. In one rant he wrote on FB: “You write total lies about people (only facts are reported), bully to the point of harassment and suicide, and will not answer a direct email? This is not journalism this is a mixture of Phil Parry (The ex journalist) and (others) you are pure scum!!!!! Let it be publicly known that The Eye does NOT care about people it just lies to make fictitious stories up. BULLYING, LIES, MENTAL HEALTH ABUSE TO NAME BUT A FEW!!!!!”.
In another he said: “I am have contacted you (sic) numerous times before asking why you consistently, stalk, bully and harass me? … You so far have asked the following for comments:
Thief
Abuser (if this is meant as a sexual abuser, it has never been said).
Liar
Sex Offender (It has never been said that this man is a sex offender).
Drug user (It has never been said that this man is a drug user, just that he has dealt in illegal drugs).
But these are not the only events of note. I have visited one individual at home who I was effectively accusing of murder, when the door I came through was bolted behind me.
In the past I have had to have a security expert give me advice about keeping my movements irregular, and my house has been wired for intruders, with panic buttons installed at the bedside and in the hall. We had two small children in the house at the time of this, and it scared the living daylights out of my wife!
Yet the offensive observations (or threats) I receive are just part and parcel of life for an investigative journalist.
So let’s, then, turn to what is happening in the United States of America (USA).
Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion (£7.5 billion) lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) parent company Dow Jones (DJ), and its owner Rupert Murdoch, over claims that he wrote a “bawdy” note to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I told Rupert Murdoch it was a Scam, that he shouldn’t print this Fake Story. But he did, and now I’m going to sue his ass off, and that of his third rate newspaper’, he posted on July 17.
The bust-up between Mr Trump and Mr Murdoch, whose media empire includes Fox News as well as the WSJ and other conservative-leaning titles, is the latest example of the president’s aim to enforce a kind of lèse-majesté rule against the American media.
It also marks a twist in the relationship between the President and America’s last real news-media baron. Mr Murdoch, an influential supporter of Mr Trump, may prove to be less of a pushover than some of his peers.
Mr Trump alleges that the publication slandered him and violated libel laws in an article alleging that a birthday greeting bearing his name was sent to the late financier in 2003, before he was charged with sex crimes.
I make no judgement as to the veracity or otherwise of this report, but I do know from long experience that it will have been double-checked by lawyers before publication.
I have had this many times (and still do), with the lawyer asking questions like: “What is your source?” and “Will he give evidence in court?”, so this could be a lengthy legal battle.
At least, though, this is only a war of words (and documents), but elsewhere we have seen FAR worse situations!
The memories of Phil’s extraordinary decades long award-winning career in journalism (when stories often upset his targets, but being killed was not normally a worry), as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
