Wednesday 26 January 2011

Another "kick in the teeth" for Abuse Survivors.

In continuation of our previous Blog we follow up with a letter of complaint to the Royal Television Society from the Jersey Care Leavers Association. The complaint, as regular readers/viewers will be aware is about the decision of RTS to present CTV with an RTS Award for “Regional Programme of the Year” or something like that.


This award has outraged a number of people, but none so important as the Abuse Survivors themselves. Below is the letter sent by JCLA and one hopes that when those at Channel Television are all patting themselves on the back that they are aware of the pain and anguish they have caused, and are still causing, the very people they SHOULD be giving a voice to.

In the coming days we will publish the letter, sent to RTS 2 days ago by VFC and have not even had an acknowledgement of receipt, let alone a reply.

Letter from JCLA to RTS

25th January 2011

Ref: CTV/RTS/Award

Dear Sirs,

We are a charity known as the Jersey Careleavers Association, formed in the wake of the Historic Abuse Enquiry in Jersey, not just for Haut de la Garenne abuse victims, but for all Careleavers who had suffered abuse at the hands of the States of Jersey run children’s homes.

The past few years have been very difficult for us, having to re-live our most horrendous memories and inner feelings again. We have encountered a lot of negatives, not only from members of our Government, but sadly from our local ‘accredited’ media also.

It is therefore with great dismay that we learn that Channel Television have won an award, based on a very biased, one-sided and indeed factually lacking report on the alleged ‘expenses scandal’ by the police team who were instrumental in bringing these abuses into the open.

There was indeed NO expenses scandal. The scandal lay, and still does, in the cover-up there has been, and the vilification of police officers who were totally trusted by the abuse survivors. The investigation team were offered an open cheque book by our then Chief Minister, and indeed all expenses were scrutinised and authorised by a senior civil servant.

This award therefore has been based on misinformation and very frugal information, and we beg to ask the question, how much investigation was done into the fuller story behind this ‘news’ item? It cannot have been a lot, because there is a far, far bigger picture to this.

As a group, we are very sorry to say we cannot trust our local media to be open, honest and unbiased, as they have proved time and time again that their interests lay on the side of our Government.

We have suffered many ups and downs over the last few years, more downs than ups. Just when we felt that the ‘knocks’ were coming to an end, we have been kicked in the teeth yet again by this totally unjustified accolade being awarded to CTV for a very misleading piece of journalism.

We would also be most interested if you are able to tell us how you initially came into possession of this piece of ‘journalism’, and furthermore who put this forward for the award.

We await your comments with interest.

Yours Sincerely
(name redacted through fear of repercussions)
Jersey Care Leavers Association

19 comments:

  1. As an Victim of H.D.L.G I am ashamed they received this award, it is disgraceful that they take this award for the coverage of the Historic Cases. Well if half of it was even true what they said & printed it would still be a joke. They get this after continually harrassing Victims & write nothing but rubbish. This award should be taken away from them, why should they feel proud of this award. I will look with interest of they can give a truthfull answer to the letter that was sent.

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  2. It would be interesting to know who felt it was worth £260+ to nominate them for this undeserved award based on half truths and totally biased.

    They should return it forthwith. CTV - you are a disgrace!and have nothing to be proud of.

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  3. Hi VFC

    Thanks for posting this letter of complaint.

    Just imagine what would be going on unchecked if we didn't have the blogs. We will carry on exposing the lies that are force fed to the General Public by certain sections of our Government and Media.

    We, at Team Voice will carry on fighting the corner for all the Victims of the Jersey Child Abuse Cover-Up. This comes with its own dangers, but one that is faced head on. Intimidation and Fear will not succeed.

    I don't have the time to post on my blog at the moment as my attention has been diverted. Please keep spreading the word and get people reading..

    We stick together and expose the lies

    RS

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  4. As another former inmate of HDLG I echo every word of that beautifully crafted letter. Giving an award to CTV for this piece of garbage is no more than an endorsement of the cover-up. It is a body-blow for all those who were bruised and beaten at the hands of "carers" in Jersey. It is a bucket of icy water over those children who were dragged from their beds and sexually abused by the people who had a duty of care to them. Those who have died or taken their own lives have no voice and luckily cannot be hurt any more. (RIP Michael O'Connell)

    Wikipedia and other articles written about the Historic Abuse Enquiry can write that there was no serious abuse and that nobody died as much as they like but some of us know the truth and we will not lie down!

    Lorna

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  5. http://www.channelonline.tv/channelonline_jerseynews/displayarticle.asp?id=425254

    Maybe the award was pay back for this award given to Adam Fowler in 2009. Balance the books as they say!!!

    A Channel Television journalist has won gold at the national ITV News Awards.

    Adam Fowler took top place in the Human Interest section for a piece on birching - a sentence of corporal punishment once regularly issued by Jersey's Courts.

    Adam spoke to Dennis Bouchere who was sentenced to twelve strokes of the birch by the Royal Court.

    Dennis said his barbaric ordeal at the hands of the justice system was an example of the culture of violence towards children in the 1950s.

    The feature was broadcast as a backdrop to the historic child abuse inquiry at the former Haut de la Garenne care home.



    14/06/2009

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  6. Perhaps the Prince of Wales, patron of the Royal Society of Television, would be interested to receive a copy of this email.

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  7. It was a sad day for Jersey media and what it could be, because the more that things like this happen; the more we become aware of the lies and deception; the more that discerning people will ignore television and join the bloggers.

    I look forward to the reply from RTS and how they are going to explain away their lack of thought or consideration to the abuse survivors by giving an award to Channel tv for that untrue and caustic reportage.

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  8. We now have two interesting unanswered questions 1 who nominated Walker for his OBE?

    And 2. who nominated and paid for CTVs award?

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  9. Indeed the answers would be interesting. I note the JCLA have asked the RTS.

    "We would also be most interested if you are able to tell us how you initially came into possession of this piece of ‘journalism’, and furthermore who put this forward for the award."

    Not sure if the JCLA have even had an acknowledgement of their complaint, but if/when they do I hope they share it with us.

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  10. VFC,

    I hope you don’t mind me using this blog to keep your readers up to speed with what's happening with Planet Jersey. I have taken ownership of the site and have been working on re-vamping it for this important election year. These changes are yet to be finalised and are taking longer than originally anticipated so I have decided to bring the forum back, in its previous format, albeit temporarily, to allow all contributors and readers access to the site. Please check Planet Jersey in the next 48 hours and stay with us to watch the site develop in the weeks ahead.

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  11. Both Lenny and the JCLA have recieved acknowledgements of their complaints but not a reply, as yet. I've still receieved neither.

    Amusingly (if it wasn't so tragic) Lenny has received a reply from the "award winning" CTV. Rather than publish it here I will publish it as a Blog of its own which it deserves.

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  12. Hi VFC.

    Just put some Audio up from this morning on the Radio. It was Roger Bara interviewing the Chief Probation Officer. I thing you & your readers should take a listen & see if you think the same as me.

    You can Listen to it Here

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  13. So, when Harper and Power were there the police had a more helpful and problem solving approach and worked closely together with other agencies, then became more confrontational and heavy handed under Warcup, but now have reverted to the former. Interesting. Could it be that a few officers thoght they could get away with anything under Warcup?

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  14. JCLA,keep speaking up for survivors,
    it is important your voice is heard

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  15. I laugh at comments by farce blog comments that clame to speak for the majority of people, such figures like 99.9% of the people have moved on now etc.

    I asked ten people at work what they thought and only one answered that they didnt think the hdlg investigations were covered up does that mean i can quote that 90% of people believe it was?

    I can also say quite honestly that i have never heard anyone say they dont believe the governement are corrupt or in it for themselves, not one single person. Does that mean 100% of our island believe they are corrupt?

    Its laughable when people throw about figures that they have absolutely no clue about or just lie/make them up.

    Looking forward to reading the response from ctv, or am I!!!!

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  16. I hope to have CTV'S reply to lenny's letter published over the weekend. It does demonstrate the standard of "journalism" they work to.

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  17. Some more interesting facts. I was watching Trevor Philips on a select committee yesterday on the Parliament programme, he is friends with Peter Scandalson and also he is one of the Vice Presidents of the RTA, who gave out that ridiculous award. Its just really wierd how some very peculiar people are being chosen to take part in select committees, and I think our elected representatives need to be a bit more picky, For instance, one select committee that was all about toning down institutional abuse police investigations titled Select Committee on Home Affairs Fourth Report had these people as witnesses - Tuesday 14 May 2002


    Mr David Rose, Special Investigations Reporter, The Observer, Mr Richard Webster, Author of "The Great Children's Home Panic", and Mr Bob Woffinden, Freelance Investigative Journalist

    and these ones Tuesday 21 May 2002



    Mr Phil Craig, Mr Phil Fiddler, Mr Rory O'Brien, Chairman, Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers (FACT), and Dr Christopher Reeves
    Ev 30


    FACT is an organisation set up to protect people who are falsely accused of child abuse, I just hope thats alol they do, know what I mean?

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  18. I may be able to help, I know someone at the RTS, I will print out all these comments and send them to him first thing tomorrow, he will be very upset as he is a man of integrity the impact this award has had on those who have suffered.

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  19. Many complaints were made to RTS but all fell on deaf ears.

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