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<p class="MsoNormal">To-days coverage of the <span style=""> </span>24<sup>rd</sup> November student<span style=""> </span>demonstrations in London and other towns</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">on BBC Radio 4 on the 6pm
News slot was brief.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Financial Times ran a headline<span style=""> </span>‘Start Up Protests’,<span style=""> </span>with pics.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>And inside <span style=""> </span>FT was more coverage with 4 pics</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Daily Mail Front Page “ Rage of the Girl<span style=""> </span>Rioters” with pics</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Guardian Front Page reads<span style="">
</span>“Schools Out children take to the streets”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Inside<span style=""> </span>G. a double
page spread with pics</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Daily telegraph reads “Student Protests turn to violence
again”.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">And inside, “Revolution in the classroom.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In September 09 the coverage of the Iran
presidential elections went on for days in UK
press <span style=""> </span>and t.v,. with interviews of the
opposition marchers. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some days<span style=""> </span>later<span style=""> </span>BBC Radio Four
8am reported (with some disappointment?)<span style=""> </span>‘there were<span style="">
</span>no demonstrations yesterday in Tehran.’</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Listeners/readers will remember the wide coverage of a group
of<span style=""> </span>Gurkha ex-soldiers protesting outside
Parliament at receiving smaller pensions than UK
ex soldiers and being refused the right to residence in UK
on retirement.<span style=""> </span>I counted 18 protesters
in the group (plus Joanna Lumley) .and there were more reporters than
demonstrators.<span style=""> </span>JL was<span style=""> </span>quoted in full with a hapless Labour Minister
disconsolately<span style=""> </span>nodding approval as she
triumphantly repeated the Government’s concessions.<span style=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At the time of the<span style="">
</span>protest of the bhuddist monks<span style=""> </span>in Myanmar,
thousands took to the streets of Rangoon
.<span style=""> </span>BBC reporters, in spite of a Myanmar
Government ban<span style=""> </span>, managed to be present
and interviewed<span style=""> </span>protesters.<span style=""> </span>The events were given wide coverage on t.v.
and in the UK
press.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>On a Sunday early in
<span style=""> </span>February 2003, some one to two million
people peacefully demonstrated against the imminent<span style=""> </span>invasion of Iraq, marching from the
Embankment<span style=""> </span>via Whitehall and along
Piccadilly massing in Hyde Park to hear a dozen or so speakers including Wedgie
Benn,<span style=""> </span>say ‘No’<span style=""> </span>Other demonstrations took place
simultaneously up and down the country and also in USA. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Later that day I listened on the evening radio news programmes
for reports and heard nothing.<span style=""> </span>Next day
I<span style=""> </span>got the Observer- nothing .<span style=""> </span>The sole coverage had been a feature had been
a big article <span style=""> </span>in the Saturday Guardian
on the eve of the demo ( with pics ) </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span>I could find no
reports<span style=""> </span>of this anti Iraq
invasion demo , <span style=""> </span>nor pics nor radio
coverage in the days following. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">What does this say about freedom of the press?<span style=""> </span>Where are our fearless reporters?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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