BBC's bias exposed

BBC’s Chris Morris prances like the proverbial Chinese monkey


By H. L. D. Mahindapala

(February 04, Melbourne, Sri Lanka Guardian) Prabhakaran represents the tragedy of our time where evil monsters are encouraged by religious, academic, intellectual and even so-called liberal institutions to drag their people through primitive sacrificial rites performed at the altar of unattainable political goals with bestial violence. Chris Morris seems to be quite content to stand beside him and beat the drums to drown the cries of those dying in agonizing pain. In manufacturing justifications for Prabhakaran to perpetuate his Eelam wars Chris Morris is as guilty as any other war criminal in the Tiger camp.
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On January 29 (Thursday) BBC aired a report filed by Chris Morris. It showed Morris prancing rather nervously, from place to place, to find a new angle for his cameraman in the garden of Gordon Weiss, the UN representative in Colombo. Eventually he winds up his peripatetic introduction to what he calls the “humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka” in front of Weiss and directs his questions at him to get the answers he wants and not what was happening to the 230,000 Tamil civilians “forced into a pocket of a third of London” (Weiss) by the Tamil Tigers.

Morris’s introduction and line of questioning were aimed at shifting the blame away from the Tamil Tigers to the Sri Lankan government. It was so transparent that I felt shy for BBC which boasts of objectivity, impartiality, “Hard Talk”, and all that jazz about probing issues in depth.

The interview with Gordon Weiss in his garden in Colombo went like this:

Chris Morris (trying to impress that he is the BBC man on the spot who will not let anyone get away with spin) refers to the UN convoy that managed to take the sick and the wounded out of the Tiger controlled areas that morning asks Weiss: “Please give us details of what happened today.”

Gordon Weiss: “Well, a UN convoy took some of the hundreds of people wounded in the fighting. Among them were 50 seriously injured children. That convoy was held back by the LTTE for some days in a village just north of the lines of confrontation. It was allowed to go out this morning across government lines and is on it way to a hospital where the people can be treated.”

CM: “When you say held back by the Tamil Tigers for what reason, do you know?”

GW: “Well, the reason they gave was that it was not safe for us to proceed.”

Weiss was merely repeating what the Tigers told the UN. He knew that the Tigers were holding the Tamil civilians as hostage for their own political and military advantage. He should have also known that the UN Secretary General, his boss, had asked the Tigers to release the civilians. Weiss was pretending to be none the wiser when he took cover behind the excuse put out by the Tigers.

In any case, it was the job of Morris to find out whether this was true or not. The BBC claims that their objective is to go behind the headlines and the spin to get at the truth. But Morris who claims to be a BBC representative acts as if he is a man planted by TamilNet, the mouthpiece of the Tamil Tigers. He is reluctant to go beyond the spin spun to Weiss by the Tamil Tigers.

Barbara Crossette, former UN bureau chief of the New York Times, who had seen this farce on BBC, castigated both Weiss and Morris. She told the Asian Tribune (January 31, 2009): “Today the UN more or less blamed the government, and only lamely included the LTTE. When BBC reporters in Colombo asked a UN official named Weiss (I forget his first name) why the LTTE would prevent these people from leaving their control, he said that the Tigers thought it would be too dangerous for them to cross over battle lines. The BBC reporter let that comment stand without challenge."

Morris is seasoned enough to know that Weiss was repeating another one of the con stories of the Tamil Tigers. Both knew that a convoy had crossed the government lines that morning without any threat to them. So where was the threat to convoys as stated by the Tigers? But neither of them was prepared to challenge the spin spun by the Tigers. Nor was Morris eager to probe any further. As stated by Barbara Crossette Morris was quite happy to let Weiss get away with his con story “without a challenge”.

To begin with, if Morris was doing his job the way he is expected to do he should have asked Weiss the obvious question: “But from where could the threats have come when you (Weiss) say that a convoy passed through government lines this morning quite safely?” Besides, Morris in his introduction had said earlier that the Tigers had taken all the civilians with them. Which means that the Tamil civilians can’t step out of line, or move one inch either way, without the consent of the Tamil Tigers keeping a sharp eye on their movements. And, as stated by Weiss, “a quarter of a million lives are imperiled because they are forced into a pocket of territory the size of a third of London.”

Both know – or should know -- that the Tamil civilians are “forced into a pocket” by the Tamil Tigers for four main reasons: 1) to keep the Tamil civilians in their grip as a human shield against the advancing forces; (2) to have in stock civilians and under aged children to face the brunt of Prabhakaran’s futile war; (3) to influence the international community to stop the advance of the forces on the excuse of a humanitarian crisis and (4) to provide ready-made excuses for cretins in international media who are every ready to swallow the Tiger propaganda fed to them.

Furthermore, both know – or should know – that the fundamental systemic failure in the Tiger ideology and hierarchy is to treat the Tamils with utter contempt as mere dispensable means to an elusive end. They should know that the "the LTTE has brutally and systematically abused the Tamil population whose behalf they claim to fight, and the LTTE bear a heavy responsibility for the desperate plight of the civilians in Vanni". (The Human Right Watch, "Trapped and Mistreated – LTTE Abuses against Civilians in Vanni" (December 2008)). Therefore , it is imperative that their judgment should be balanced giving due weightage to the negatives of both sides. Morris has a right to focus on the failures of the Sri Lankan state. But in doing so he cannot turn a Nelsonian eye, or downplay the Satanic forces unleashed by the Tamil Tigers which is the prime cause of the major violations of human rights in Sri Lanka.

The restraint shown by the state in combating the Evil-lamists is by far superior to other states facing similar crises. BBC, for instance, announces that nine people have been killed by artillery fire crashing on Pudukudurippy hospital, leaving the impression that it is a criminal act of the state. But it refuses to add that the UN office says that it does not know who fired the shots. If he government fired the barrage then they should beheld accountable to it. But when Morris deliberately suppresses the vital information that the firing could have come from the Tamil Tigers then he becomes accomplices of the criminal gang that fired it. He complained earlier that the Government was controlling the flow of information. But when he censors the vital information on his own he is stepping out of line by playing a political game of his own which would place the lives of civilians at great risk.

It is this subtle – and sometimes even brazen – slanting of news reports that makes a mockery of BBC’s that it is impartial and objective. BBC, like any other media organization, has its own fixed attitude towards each crisis. Consider for a moment that Chris Morris was in Rwanda and not in Sri Lanka. In this circumstance, imagine if a UN official repeats to Morris the excuse of Robert Mugabe’s propaganda machine that the civilians trapped in a conflict zone cannot get out because it was not safe to proceed out of Mugabe-controlled territory into safety zones! Would anti-Mugabe BBC accept that excuse? Our friend Morris would go berserk, wouldn’t he, like a monkey who had lost his banana?

The biases of the BBC are quite apparent. In Rwanda they are anti-Mugabe partly because he has mismanaged the economy and abused power and more importantly because he had dared to touch the sacred British assets. So they have not spared him. Every single act of omission and commission of Mugabe is played up to demonize him.

In Sri Lanka where the Tamil Tigers are violating every known cannon of international humanitarian law, committing war crimes and crimes against humanity with impunity. BBC angles its news and comments to exonerate Prabhakaran, the one-man regime that had liquidated more Tamils than all the other forces put together, and points the accusing finger at the state. . The humanitarian crisis generated by the north-south conflict in Sri Lanka has been there since Prabhakaran got his first Tamil scalp in July 1975 when he gunned down the Mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiyappah. He has never stopped killing Tamils since then. And now he wants to go down as the man who exposed his own people to mass slaughter, without any qualms, for his own survival in a war that he cannot win. He began his career by killing one Tamil. He wants to end it by dragging thousands with him to their graves.

But when Morris was in Mullativu the bells were tolling loudly for the Tamil Tigers. The critical situation was summed up later by the Co-Chairs when they said: “International efforts to persuade the LTTE to allow the civilians freedom of movement have failed. There remains probably only a short period of time before the LTTE loses control of all areas in the North. The LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka should recognize that further loss of life - of civilians and combatants - will serve no cause.”

They added that the Tigers should lay down arms, renounce violence, accept the Government of Sri Lanka's offer of amnesty; and participate as a political party in a process to achieve a just and lasting political solution primarily to avoid civilian casualties and human suffering.”

The writing was there on the wall. How did Morris miss it all? Or was he turning a Nelsonian eye hoping to give some oxygen to Prabhakaran? If there is any judgmental sentence passed for violations of human rights it should be directed at the primary source of evil – namely, the Evil-lamists. It is true that the innocent Tamil civilians should not be made to pay for the sins of Prabhakaran. But if Prabhakaran is refusing to let the civilians go who should be held responsible for the deaths of the Tamils? When he is deliberately committing the ultimate crime of exposing the Tamils to certain death due to his political decision should the international community let him get away with impunity? Should not the international community, even at this stage, initiate action to bring him before a international criminal court? When Morris talks of international intervention why does he not refer to this course of action? Why is his international intervention only to halt the war which is not going to end the carnage because it leaves the primary criminal, “the latest Pol Pot of Asia” (New York Times) safe and sound? The judgments of BBC pundits, who are wont to pontificate liberally on Sri Lanka, is not to target the criminal committing crimes but to target the victims, which, in this instance, includes the democratically elected state. By and large, democratically elected states, with all their infirmities, are victims of the politics of terror aimed primarily at overriding the will of people through force of indiscriminate violence. Liberalism and humanitarian activism must necessarily choose between elected governments and self-appointed liberators whenever the latter resorts to intransigent and unmitigated terrorism to subvert the will of the people. .

Yes, there is a humanitarian crisis looming large in the horizon. But who is responsible for it? When Prabhakaran, in his cowardly way, is using his own people as his last defence, why blame the government? .The government is placed in a Catch-22 situation, no doubt: halting the war to save the Tamil trapped in Mullativu means giving breathing space, or saving Prabhakaran. At the same time the government is forced to go through the human shield to bring Prabhakaran to book. In this situation what is the option available for the government which had tried and failed again and again to negotiate with the Tamil Tiger terrorists? How can a coward like Prabhakaran be exonerated by BBC and the so-called liberals of the West? He has promised to swallow the pill if he can’t attain his Eelam. Even his blind dog will tell him that his capacity to establish Eelam is as great as the capacity of the BBC to report the realities in Sri Lanka.

One way of ending the misery of all Sri Lankans is for him to swallow the pill. But then again, why should he when he has the proverbial Chinese monkeys like Chris Morris on his side? Consider the next question of Morris. He is ready to let Prabhakaran off the hook but not the Sri Lankan government. After asking Weiss the reason why the Tamil Tigers “held back” the transport of the sick and the injured Morris gets on his familiar hobby horse of raising questions – no, not about the Tigers but about the Government.

He recites the grim picture painted by Red Cross and claims that dozens were killed and hundreds wounded. He doesn’t say that the Government had given the Tigers 48-hours to let the Tamil people go into the safety zone. He doesn’t say that the UN Secretary-General, the American Ambassador, Robert Blake, India and even the Bishop of Jaffna, Thomas Savundranayagam, had appealed to the Tigers to let the Tamil people go. No. Morris, on his own, blacks out the information that goes against his agenda of giving oxygen to Prabhakaran/ His silence on this issue implies that the Tamil people should be left to face the consequences of living with Prabhakaran. He fails to raise any moral questions about Prabhakaran’s refusal to let his people go into safety. Morris also has lived long enough in Sri Lanka to know that the majority of the Tamils still live in comparative peace and harmony in areas outside the areas controlled by Morris’s “Sun God”, Prabhakaran.

He avoids all the “Hard Talk” on this issue and instead hones in on Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the Defence Secretary, who had said that the figures are exaggerated and the information is wrong. He turns to Weiss and asks: “Your response to that?”

Weiss replies that his staff had witnessed deaths and he cites the example of how UN accompanied a convoy that morning carrying the critically injured.

At this point Morris reveals his hidden agenda and asks, somewhat hesitantly, twiddling his fingers, uncertain of what Weiss would say: “So from your perspective there is an international crisis, which needs international attention?”

Not surprisingly, this is also the agenda of the Tamil Tigers. Their agents are crying from rooftops to stop the war through international intervention. Morris contributes his silent and vocal assent to this agenda. But considering his bloody past, his intransigence, his indifference to the suffering of his own people which he is happy to blame on the government, his ruthless decimation of the Tamil population, his refusal to negotiate except on his own terms, and his willingness to dig more graves for the people trapped under his ruthless jackboots, what can be achieved if the Security Forces halt the war now? Peace? Release of civilians held captive by the Tamil Pol Pot? Laying down of arms which all Western countries demand in dealing with armed groups challenging their democracies? Acceptance of civilized norms and toleration of dissent? Enter main political stream like other militants? Fat hope there is of him accepting anything ethical or normal!

Morris should know that it would only give Prabhakaran some breathing space to recover for him to launch his next offensive. Morris is one example that makes monstrosities like Robert Mugabe respectable. Mugabe has banned BBC. It is BBC hacks like Morris that validate such bans. Why should any nation tolerate mendacious media mongrels who are ever ready to wag their tails before their favourite political masters and bark at those out of their loop? Without excusing Mugabe for his sins of omission and commission, it must be emphasized that freedom of the press does not mean the freedom to propagate misinformation, lies and destructive propaganda that threaten peace, stability and the lives of people in any society.

The rules invariably change in democratic societies threatened by irrational and fascist violence. When Britain was bombed by a gang of Islamic fundamentalist Tony Blair told bluntly, and quite correctly, that the rules must change and he did change the rules fast. In fact, the Police chased an innocent Brazilian and shot him dead. Under pressures of threatened circumstances all law enforcement authorities react forcefully and aggressively and sometimes even exceed the boundaries of law. Practically, every nation has its own “Bloody Sunday”. The fact that they appoint commissions of inquiries does not mean that another “Bloodier Sunday” will not occur in the future to protect British interests. White washing past crimes by appointing commissions of inquiries is a line of argument that is commonly used by editorialists who pontificate in the op-ed columns of The Guardian and The Times. This argument is used to impress that their system is fair, just and superior. But does it really wash away to gross crimes against humanity of Dresden and “Bloody Sunday”? Morris must have studied enough history to know that evil does not end with commissions – even if they are commissions of truth headed by Nobel Peace Prize winners – though they may act as soothing palliatives after a period of violence.

The BBC humbuggery, of course, assumes that only the British – and also their fellow white men – have the right to deal with those who threaten their way of life, their sovereignty, their territorial integrity any way they like, including firebombing of Dresden. BBC will push for international intervention, R2P et al, for all other countries except Britain and its allies. Morris was canvassing for international intervention in his interview with Weiss but on whose behalf? Besides, international intervention has its own complications. What is apparent is that he was seeking intervention to stop the war which would benefit only Prabhakaran. This intervention is not to release the Tamil people from his grip. It will be only to reinforce Prabhakaran’s his grip on the Tamil people who are tired of this war.

Besides, it is interesting to find out why Morris, who is now concerned excessively about the human rights facing the Tamils, was he silent when Prabhakaran had tortured, persecuted and decimated the Tamils all these days? He was first posted to Sri Lanka in 1991. He knew the history of Prabhakaran for nearly two decades. Why is he asking for international intervention only now when Prabhakaran is about to be removed from the political equation? In which nether regions of his anatomy was his conscience stuck immovably all these days?

Knowing the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by Prabhakaran BBC and Chris Morris should be throwing their weight to get him arraigned before an international criminal court. He should be asking why is Thomas Lubanga, who is guilty of lesser crimes than Prabhakaran, before an international criminal court and not Prabhakaran. But Morris is keen on pursuing Gotabaya Rajapaksa than Prabhakaran. What does that mean to the average viewer who expects higher standards from the BBC?

Giving oxygen to Prabhakaran at this critical stage, even in the form of biased reporting, is a serious threat to peace, security and the lives of the Tamil people held as captive in Mullativu. President Mahinda Rajapakse should have no hesitation in doing to Chris Morris what Ranil Wickremesinghe did to Paul Harris, the correspondent of the Jane’s Weekly. Paul was sent out for telling the truth about the “Greatest Land Give Away” by Wickremesinghe. Chris should be sent out for telling lies which endanger the lives of Sri Lankans.

When it is a choice between saving peace to save lives and freedom of the press I opt for the former. You can always regain the freedom of the press but not lives lost. I must confess that I don’t believe in the right of information at any cost. Besides, no state has ever allowed it – not even under the freedom on information acts. Nor do I believe that the public right to know covers everything including information that can harm their own security when facing an enemy threatening their lives. Also I don’t believe that the knowing everything has prevented crimes, corruption, and violence at all levels. Information helps but it is not the cure-all for vexed problems. If that is the case all what is required is to disgorge bus loads of reporters to every known trouble spot to resolve intractable conflicts. American society, for instance, which can claim to be the most open society, burdened with an overload of information, is riddled with incorrigible corruption and crimes, starting from the White House (Richard Nixon) to corporate crooks in Wall Street. If reporters acting freely in an open society constitute the answer why has America failed?

Besides, it must be noted that the Sri Lankan war, like any other successful war, was not won because war correspondents reported every possible detail. In fact, their input was totally irrelevant to the course of the war. It was the foot soldiers who never read a word of correspondents’ reports that slogged it and won the battles. It was the determination, commitment and guts of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who acted decisively ignoring the trivia of war correspondents that led to victory. Sometimes the paper tigers in the media acted as if they were greater heroes than the soldiers who fought hand-to-hand battles in searing heat and numbing rain. It could be argued that the war was won despite the reports of the war correspondents who thrived on the blood and sweat of our soldiers. .

Consider the case of Morris. He was crowing that he was the first correspondent to report from Mullativu after it was captured by the Security Forces and what was the outcome? Look at the reports he filed since then. He hasn’t fond a single positive thing in Sri Lanka since he arrived. He complained from Mullativu that the “government was controlling the flow of information”. Was he any better? He censored and controlled the information that did not suit his political agenda. He focused on the Security forces firing into Tiger territory to blame the government of violating human rights when the Tigers on the other side were welcoming the shells because they were hitting the civilians “forced into the territory” held by them. With each death the Tigers were gaining political mileage and Morris was there to crow about it. He projected the shelling as evil without informing that it was the Tigers who were forcing the civilians to face the shells while the Tiger leadership was hiding in their concrete bunkers. Obviously morality has many shades and the more it gets closer to Prabhakaran the more white it is to the BBC!

Pretending to be an objective reporter Chris Morris set about his campaign of broadcasting misinformation and accusations against the Sri Lankan government without any respect for maintaining professional standards. He was irresponsible, misleading, covering-up and plugging an open political line which could only aid Prabhakaran to carry on his business of killing his own people and the others in Sri Lanka. The least he could have done was to balance his reports. But it seems that he has been trained only to balance the scales only in favour of Pol Pots.

In the guise of reporting he was providing justifications for the prolonging of Prabhakaran’s brutal war. Prabhakaran represents the tragedy of our time where evil monsters are encouraged by religious, academic, intellectual and even so-called liberal institutions to drag their people through primitive sacrificial rites performed at the altar of unattainable political goals with bestial violence. Chris Morris seems to be quite content to stand beside him and beat the drums to drown the cries of those dying in agonizing pain. In manufacturing justifications for Prabhakaran to perpetuate his Eelam wars Chris Morris is as guilty as any other war criminal.

The world would be a better place to live in without the destructive liberalism of those perpetuating the violence of Prabhakaran. Sri Lanka indeed would be better off without the performing monkeys sent out by the Organ Grinder at the BBC. There is a problem though in this: looking at the way Chris Morris performs it is rather difficult to figure out who is the organ grinder and who is the monkey.

End Note: This is written to document the blatant bias of BBC in reporting Sri Lankan issues.-Sri Lanka Guardian