Thursday 14 July 2011

The Skull, The Evidence and the media.

With the role of the media and its relationship with governments being in the spotlight thanks to the News of the World scandal. We once more bring you Jersey's "finest" journalists.


For those who have been following this series of former DCO Harper giving evidence to the Scrutiny Sub Panel, the video below is what happened at the end of Mr. Harper giving evidence to the Scrutiny Home Affairs and Education Sub Panel.

Mr. Harper agreed to stay on the line to answer questions from "journalists" and Bloggers and we were all allowed one question each. This is because the head of the Scrutiny Chairman's panel, Senator Sarah Ferguson, was present at the meeting (don't know why) and had complained about the cost of keeping Mr. Harper on the line which probably worked out at about £2.50.

As for the role of the island's media, one has to question their motives. At this hearing were members of the public, among those members of the public, were victims/survivors of Child Abuse. A request was made at the beginning of this hearing and assurances given that members of the public would not be filmed by the media and reproduced below, is the "official" transcript of that.


Male Speaker:
"Could I just say before you start I do not think members of the public want to be filmed by the media.  

Deputy T.M. Pitman:
Are you going to focus on us?  Please, thank you."

The "thank you" from the panel Chairman was a consequence of receiving visual assurances from the media that they agreed with this request. The request was made, not least, because one of the members of public present, who is also an Abuse Survivor, is the target of threatening and intimidatory phone calls, and has even had a stranger come to their door to, among other things, threaten him/her not to reveal the name of their Abuser. This Survivor has subsequently received more threats since this hearing.

This begs the question, did our local media turn up to this meeting to intimidate members of the public and Abuse Victims/Survivors? The media very rarely turn up to Scrutiny Panel Hearings and when they do they very rarely stay for the duration.

This particular Hearing attracted just about ALL of the local media, the JEP, BBC and CTV that we are aware of. Yet not one of them wanted to ask a single question of the man giving evidence Mr. Harper. Not one of them had contacted him to ask for an exclusive or any kind of scoop. Could this be because they already know, or have been told, what they are going to write, publish or broadcast regardless of what Mr. Harper has to say?

This scenario has some merit because a couple of days later the good old JEP, who can't seem to mention Mr. Harper's name without mentioning the "Coconut" mentioned Mr. Harper's name and the Coconut. But if you, the viewer, listen to Mr. Harper's evidence (which the JEP clearly didn't) then you will hear him say that there is no scientific data to show it is coconut. There is however scientific "evidence" to show that this item contained 1.6% collagen which is only found in mammals. Not one of the "accredited" media had a single question to ask about the "fresh and fleshed" bones that had been burnt before burial. After one and a half hours of Mr. Harper giving evidence the "professional, paid, accredited "journalists" could not think of a single question to ask him?

While Mr. Harper was discussing the find of the skull fragment, the "fresh and fleshed" bones when burnt and other finds at HDLG Team Voice noticed that not one of the local "journalists" were taking any notes of what Mr. Harper was telling us.

Team Voice asked Mr. Harper if he believed it would make a blind bit of difference as to what he had to say because the "accredited" media were going to report their own version regardless. Mr. Harper was right in assuming the "accredited" media would give out their version, contrary to the "facts" and "evidence."

So just what is the role of Jersey's mainstream media? How comfortable and cosy is their relationship with the ruling elite? Are they looking to get to the truth? Do they want the public to be informed of the "facts?" Do they intentionally intimidate Abuse Victims/Survivors and members of the public? Are they no more than a propaganda machine for the ruling elite?

   


35 comments:

  1. LGC Forensics with Director Lord Stevens was also involved in Dr. Kelly investigation.

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  2. Dr. Kelly was murdered to prevent him saying there was no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

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  3. Just to play Devil's Advocate a bit. Whether the fragment was coconut or skull, with hindsight, proved to be irrelevant to investigation of any recent crimes. It came from an archaeological layer that showed it was much older than would be relevant to the inquiry - Victorian or earlier.

    Until it was tentatively dated, however, it could not be ruled out as significant evidence. When it was dated, it was ruled out so I don't quite see why the media, with seemingly gleeful hindsight, seem to over-promote this as some form of proof that the investigation went awry.

    Whether the object was Victorian coconut or Victorian skull should not impinge on subsequent evidence found, particularly the cut, burnt fresh and fleshed bones found later that may have been moved and/or deliberately concealed, which really has been rather airbrushed out of the mainstream media reports. Assuming the bones were genuinely human (see my last paragraph), they were, at least, evidence that someone tried to cover up possibly accidental deaths of a child/children.

    I think one thing we can take from the whole investigation is that the pronouncements of forensic scientist evidence and anthropological/archaeological opinion are nowhere near as clear cut as the general public believes from programmes such as CSI

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  4. The skull fragment should be set aside, it does nothing to re-open the abuse inquiry or get justice for those that have not succeeded in getting a trial. You need to move on from this, its meaningless, time wasting and only being made a mockery of elsewhere.

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  5. Paul Le Claire start looking for another job. You make me sick. All talk and posturing. If you are elected we all know we won't hear another peep out of you until six months before the next election.

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  6. Hi VFC

    Im glad you have mentioned Jar/6

    Sometime next week I will be producing a post on Jar/6 with some never seen before evidence obtained through the FOI in the UK.

    I will be giving a very personal post on Jar/6. I have never really shared my thoughts and opinions on this item with anyone. I did a post on it a long time ago on VFP called Jar/6.

    During all my work investigating the HCAE one thing and one thing only has got under my skin

    Jar/6


    All will be explained next


    rs

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  7. 'its meaningless, time wasting and only being made a mockery of elsewhere'.

    How can it ever be meaningless when it has been 'used' by the media and Messrs Warcup and Gradwell to rubbish the abuse enquiry? And can you point us to where it is being made a mockery of elsewhere?

    No, I thought so.

    Until this whole sorry saga is resolved, and much to the chagrin of many, many abuse deniers (including a lot of States Members), it is not going away. I repeat, it is not going away.

    More fool the States of Jersey and the cover-up merchants for trying and lying. It has not, and will not work. Better to have been honest and straight right from the start, but the legacy this will leave will not be a good one.

    Yes, an abuse survivor who suffered the worst kind of abuse, has not seen justice (yet), and indeed whose abuser is known, now receives unwanted calls and visits.

    Says it all really does it not? This just goes to prove there are still people out there that have reason to be worried - very worried.

    If only we had a remotely credible MSM here there would be questions asked and headlines on an almost daily basis, but no, it is left to those who really care - the bloggers.

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  8. The mainstream media and their overlords have pinned a lot of their argument on the claim that it was definitely coconut, so the scientific facts will - sooner or later - correct any final historic record, and show media corruption as a contributing factor to the continued protection of Jersey's pedophiles.

    It is fairly easy to speculate that had forensic examination and testing failed to determine that at least some charred bones were human, the pedophile protectors' hacks would have endlessly trumpeted that instead.

    Yet, like web trolls, they just repeat, "coconut! coconut!" and any real evidence they can't spin is simply ignored as if it never existed, or it is blamed on the tooth fairy. Do the people who come up with these claims have any idea how disgusting that is?

    I really do wonder how members of the local media sleep at night. No one who has read the real evidence is ever going to accept excuses, and we will never forget the truth, either. I believe far more people outside of Jersey now know the real evidence than believe the spin, because your local media has no bearing on what is accepted elsewhere.

    There were children's bones. There were teeth. The fragment they called coconut contained collagen. The shockingly high number of people who have knowingly lied about these facts will be known as the disgrace of Jersey.

    There is simply no place to hide from the evidence published on the internet. At some future date, Jersey's truth seeking bloggers, the abuse survivors and their local supporters will be practically the only people in Jersey who will be respected at all by the rest of the world.

    AsElsewhereKnown

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    Replies
    1. Charlie. the islands up to neck in Charlie and that includes banker, the legal eagles, media hacks and wealthy middle class members of the States of Jersey.

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  9. Can you identify the photographer who was taking pictures during Lenny Harper's explanation? If that was a member of the Jersey media, which outlet? I would like to submit some of these details to an international organization.

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  10. Hi VFC.

    Senator Ozouf's speech about the Chief Minister.

    You can listen to it HERE

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  11. "Can you identify the photographer who was taking pictures during Lenny Harper's explanation?"

    Don't know the name but he works for the JEP.

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  12. From what you and other attendees saw, did the photographer appear to be taking those pictures for the purpose of intimidating witnesses and abuse survivors?

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  13. Yes, that is the impression that a number of us got.

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  14. Photographer's name is Jon Guegan.

    Don't forget CTV used footage which included members of the public on their news bulletin also.

    Some of the same abuse survivors will be present today (I am not a survivor incidentally), and I know they will NOT want their pictures used in any way, shape or form.

    Let us hope a bit of sensitivity prevails towards them today or am I expecting too much?

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  15. "Can you identify the photographer who was taking pictures during Lenny Harper's explanation?"

    In those situations, my advice is to whip out your phone/camera and take a picture of him. You can always use it later if you need to.

    Rights are reciprocal.

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  16. Further to question the photographer's motives, baring in mind assurances were given that members of the public wouldn't be filmed by the media.

    Male Speaker:
    "Could I just say before you start I do not think members of the public want to be filmed by the media.

    Deputy T.M. Pitman:
    Are you going to focus on us? Please, thank you."

    The photographer actually turns up after the meeting had finished! In the video you will see he only takes two photographs, one of Deputy Tadier walking out and one of the members of public.

    Ben Queree was the JEP "Journalist" that was in there and knew members of the public shouldn't have been filmed.......but more about him in an up-coming Blog.

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  17. Some will say the man who clearly appeared to use his camera as a weapon of intimidation had no choice, that he is forced by his employers to be a dishonest disinformation mouthpiece. Like Ben-no-Enquiring-Here. Most large scale damage to the soul of a people is done by followers. A solitary Pol Pot or Hitler could have done little without them. We should be able to look at ourselves and determine when we are using decent ethical standards if we chose to follow others. Whether or not we are paid we still have a real moral choice. We are not being held at gunpoint if we are only unethical as a condition of a term of a particular job. That is still true in any economic climate.

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  18. What happened today?????

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  19. Will answer, as best as I can, tomorrow.

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  20. I hear 'Big Trev' was great again as were Wimberley and Le Herissier. So where I ask was Montford Tadier?

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  21. The childs skull, the childrens teeth, the chard, fleshed and fresh, sawn juvenile bones.

    Are the most important evidence to be looking into why it has disappeared.

    Then the cellars, the heavy solid stone bath and line pits, which also disappeared.

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  22. Nothing on any of the blogs tonight about today's meeting. Citizen's media is letting us down being so slow ;)

    Plus, I'm still puzzled what happened at the censure motion and Monty supporting the CM?! How can I fond out more?

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  23. I stumbled upon Nick le Cornu's blog and was disgusted to see him doing his slippery best to misrepresent Trevor Pitman's excellent handling of the Scrutiny hearing.

    With so called Progessives like Le Cornu in the shadows it really is no wonder the ozouf & Le Sewer axis win every time. I wouldn't give Le Cornu a vote in a month of Sundays after reading that blog. Not that many do read it from the look of things.

    Pitman deserves credit for getting this review up and running not sniping from someone who would claim to be on the same side.Beware of this man I say if this is how Le Cornu behaves.

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  24. “Plus, I'm still puzzled what happened at the censure motion and Monty supporting the CM?! How can I fond out more?”

    You can ask him, as he has his own Blogsite. As for the Scrutiny Hearing Rico is hoping to publish a Blog on it tomorrow and I am hoping to put up some video, on here, of Rico giving evidence to the Scrutiny Panel chaired by Deputy Trevor Pitman (for the benefit of the BBC)

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  25. Nothing on any of the blogs tonight about today's meeting. Citizen's media is letting us down being so slow ;)


    I was in the pub having a pint

    rs

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  26. A well deserved pint Rico.

    Just going through the video of your evidence to Scrutiny yesterday. If only we had a fair, impartial and objective mainstream media. But as it has worked out, in reality the main headline news would be about themselves and their disgraceful reporting.......and lack of.

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  27. Denver Gals, great fans of your blogging, are sitting around the ole' coffee shop anxiously awaiting an update. If only we could buy y'all a couple of rounds of stiff drinks we surely would. Nobody deserves it more, and nobody deserves a press award more than you guys do.

    But we are really tearing our hair out here waiting. Have pity.

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  28. Hope to have video up tomorrow of Rico giving his evidence to the panel. Rico himself hopes to have a new Blog up tomorrow also.

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  29. Deputy T (should that be TF?) Pitman is the rising star of Jersey politics. We know that and the Ozouf Gang knows that too. This is why it is my guess moves will now be steped up to try and attack and discredit him anyway they can.

    Just consider Le Marquand's pathetic attempts to have him removed from chairing this review. The last thing they will want is someone who is both thorough and who can't be bullied in control.

    Look at the censure debate. The putdowns were flying and he didn't miss a beat. Keep it going.The truth will out in the end.

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  30. Hi VFC.

    Just put up some more speeches from the Vote of censure on the Chief Minister. You can Listen to them HERE

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  31. Just checking back on Martin Grime and Eddie, it would appear Eddie picked up on two cadaver's. Theresa Parkers body has since been found and her husband charged with her murder !

    http://steelmagnolia-steelmagnolia.blogspot.com/2011/12/mccann-theresa-parker-martin-grime-and.html

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  32. I phoned Radio Jersey to ask where the piece of a child's skull was sent and was told to contact Kew Gardens who were going to have a professor examin it. Why Kew Gardens? It was examined here in Jersey by a pathologist who claimed it was bone from a child. Another cover up, like my story on this French scientist I wrote about who was no less than a confidence trickster from day one and a paedophile.

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