Conference tallis::celt

The House of Representatives is holding a meeting regarding this type
of issue.
The Chairmen for the meeting are:

Honorable Edward J. Markey, Chairman,
Telecommunications and Finance Subcommittee, House of Representatives,
Washington, DC 20515 AND Honorable Daniel K. Inouye, Chairman,
Communications Sub-committee, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510.

Fortunately for email users, the Subcommittee on Telecommunications
and Finance of the U.S. House of Representatives have provided an
email address for sending issues to the subcommitte before and during
the July 26th hearing.

       [email protected]

       or

       [email protected]        for a human contact.


After hearing of this, I've sent the mail below to both addresses. 


Honorable Edward J. Markey,
   BBC, which is totally funded by the British Foreign Office, and
rigorously censors new from Northern Ireland, uses National Public Radio
(NPR) satelites for distributing news worldwide.  Funding for NPR is
provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), with US
taxpayer monies.  Please investigate this corrupt funding of BBC
broadcasts with taxpayer monies and demand that all BBC news carry a
"censored news" warning.
  Senator Frank Lautenberg and Congressman Peter King are currently
investigating this matter.

                     Sincerely,
                       Mark Holohan

    I know the British censor Sinn F�in broadcasts, which is totally
    against all notions of free speech (funny for a western nation isn't
    it?).  However, in past years the BBC has been relatively impartial in
    their reporting of Northern Ireland.  I don't know how they are today
    after all their budget cuts and pressure from the food source.  I don't
    listen too frequently lately.
    
    /G

    
    There's no doubt that American constitution allows greater freedom of
    press than available in England. However I'm not sure many American
    networks would regularly broadcast propaganda from the political arm of
    the Islamic Brotherhood or one of the other terrorist groups that have 
    aided the good sheik in his plans to blow up parts of Manhattan.
    

    Holohan,
    
    What are you on?
    
    Laurie.
    
    
    PS. I'm sure that the Foreign Office has been censoring Reuters too.
        How else can you explain the following? We know it's untrue, after
        all, you and the unlamented Drotter have told us often enough.
    
    RTw  07/18 1600  POLICE SAY IRA FORCED ELDERLY, YOUNG TO HIDE ARMS

    BELFAST, July 18 (Reuter) - IRA guerrillas fighting British rule in
    Northern Ireland forced elderly people and young mothers to hide
    explosives, guns, bomb-making equipment and bullets, police said after
    a search operation on Sunday.

    They said they found a kilo of Semtex explosives and an arsenal of arms
    in nine locations in the province's capital Belfast on Saturday after
    hundreds of homes and gardens were searched in a 12-hour operation.

    "The terrorists are in fact using the homes of people who are more
    vulnerable in the community to hide guns and bombs," a senior police
    officer said.

    "They include the homes of the elderly, the infirm, and young unmarried
    mothers," he added.

    Earlier on Sunday, a British army bomb disposal squad harmlessly
    exploded a 300 pound (150 kg) car bomb left outside a Northern Ireland
    tourist office.

    Families in 50 houses were evacuated for five hours in the town of
    Banbridge, County Tyrone, while the army carried out the controlled
    explosion following a warning from the Irish Republican Army (IRA),
    police said.

    The car containing the bomb had been seized at gunpoint from a family
    in Belfast.

    The IRA, battling to oust Britain from Northern Ireland, has recently
    escalated its campaign with car bomb attacks in six cities in the
    province that caused millions of pounds of damage.

    More than 3,000 people have been killed in Northern Ireland since the
    conflict erupted in 1969.

    REUTER

    
    I wondor why Reuters can't get their geography right. Banbridge is in 
    County Down, not Tyrone.
    
    Denis.

>> the BBC, which is totally funded by the British Foreign
>> Office and rigorously censors the news from Northern Ireland, uses NPR

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

The BBC is funded mainly by the 80-odd quid that I, and other legal TV 
owners in the UK, pay annually as the license fee.

Yours helpfully....Mark R.

 re. .6
   You're referring to BBC domestic TV, I'm referring 
 to BBC world service radio.
                    Mark

RE. .7

You didn't say that though, did you ?  Youy shouldn't bleat about the
mis-information of others if you don't get your own facts straight.

That's my opinion.

Mark

 re. .8
   Yeah, I guess just saying BBC in the context of
 radio transmissions (National Public Radio) wasn't 
 clear enough for some people.

                         Mark
  

    >press than available in England. However I'm not sure many American
    >networks would regularly broadcast propaganda from the political arm of
    >the Islamic Brotherhood or one of the other terrorist groups that have 
    >aided the good sheik in his plans to blow up parts of Manhattan.
    
    Well I saw an lengthy interview with Sheik Omar on a major network just
    a few weeks ago here in the U.S. and it wasn't censored or dubbed.
    
    Are you implying that Sinn Fein broadcasts would be propaganda?  One
    could say the same thing about British broadcasts.  I'm not pro Sinn
    Fein or anti Sinn Fein, but I believe that your viewers are smart
    enough to make up their own minds on what is propaganda and what isn't.
    
    Reminds me of laugh tracks on many mindless American comedy shows.
    They tell us when to laugh...  Your tele goes a step further and
    decides what you should watch...  ;v)
    
    /g

    
    Well the sheik wasn't owning up to much, was he! And neither would I
    with a federal rap poised to strike. On the other hand Sinn Fein makes
    its support of IRA terrorism pretty clear, although it tries to muddy
    the water as best it can. 
    
    If the CPB/NPR were closed down tomorrow it wouldn't bother me. Its a
    well known propaganda network for the liberal Democrats anyway,
    although I've never seen it as very pro-British. It normally bends over
    backwards to be politically correct.
    
    I tend to agree the world service could include some of Sinn Fein's
    views. One can understand the mechanism in the BBC that might speak
    against that however, Imagine the level of terrorism currently directed
    against Northern Ireland and mainland Britain going on in NY then think
    back to the outcry against Peter Arnott's broadcasts from Baghdad. I
    wonder how long it would be before a Sinn Fein equivalent in the US
    would be allowed untrammelled access to the networks. In any event.
    let's not judge the world by America's standards of free speech.
    

The UK censorship of Sinn Fein is an absolute farce anyway. Apart from 
being totally wrong from a free-speech point of view, it simply doesn't 
work. All that journalists/broadcasters have to do is to use a voice-over. 
They can (and do) broadcast the pictures and simultaneously use the voice 
of an actor with the appropriate accent. 

The net effect is that you hear and see what you would under normal 
circumstances except for the sub-title explaining that the voice is that of 
an actor. 

Mark 

 re. .12

 It's certainly no farce, and it works the way the
 British government wants it to work.  They use it
 to label opposition political groups, and human rights
 advocates as "terrorists" or "terrorist supporters" in
 the minds of Irish and British viewers.  One only has
 to listen to the likes of Eastland to see that this 
 type of brain-washing has been successful on much of 
 the British and Irish public.  And that Mark is the 
 net effect, and the desired British effect.

 There can be no justification for censorship of
 political parties.  Were freedom of speech is not
 quaranteed, tyranny can easily rule.

                Mark H.

    Mr. Holohan has, in my opinion, been deliberately misleading in his
    statements about the BBC and its funding. The BBC is composed of two
    main parts. One deals with TV, the other with radio. The former is 100%
    funded by the Government via licence fees. The latter is split into
    three main parts:
    
    1) National radio (Radio 1 - Pop,
                       R2 MOR 50-somethings,
                       R3 Classical, 
                       R4 News/comment/plays etc.,
                       R5 Sport);
    2) Local radio with limited local audience.
    3) BBC World Service.
    
    Of these, 1) and 2) are funded in a similar manner to the TV. 3) is
    *partially* funded by the Foreign Office. The *vast majority* is funded
    in the same way as the other two. So, in order to be accurate, Mr.
    Holohan's note, instead of reading "the BBC which is totally funded by
    the Foreign Office", should read "the BBC World Service radio station,
    (a small part of the BBC) which is partially funded by the Foreign
    Office".
    
    Puts a rather different perspective on it, doesn't it?
    
    Laurie.

    
    I fear it is you that have been 'brain washed' Mark, if you can make
    believe to yourself that Sinn Fein is not the political arm of a terrorist
    organization and doesn't support the IRAs campaign.
    

> re. .12

> It's certainly no farce, and it works the way the
> British government wants it to work.  

Not true. It has backfired completely. Many pressure groups are still 
lobbying against it and (I think) a large chunk of the UK population think 
it stinks.


					They use it
 to label opposition political groups, and human rights
 advocates as "terrorists" or "terrorist supporters" in
 the minds of Irish and British viewers.

The vast majority of UK citizens can think for themselves. Part of the 
reason that this has backfired is because Sinn Fein's public image is 
rock-bottom anyway. We don't need a half-hearted censorship of their views 
to tell us that.  BTW- You call them human rights advocates if you like. 
People who bomb indiscrimimately are, to me , terrorists.
  
>					One only has
> to listen to the likes of Eastland to see that this 
> type of brain-washing has been successful on much of 
> the British and Irish public.  And that Mark is the 
> net effect, and the desired British effect.

I don't know Mr. Eastland's views on the matter, but I'll bet that the 
introduction of Sinn Fein censorship hasn't changes them.



> There can be no justification for censorship of
> political parties.  Were freedom of speech is not
> quaranteed, tyranny can easily rule.

100% agreed. 

                Mark R.

>The UK censorship of Sinn Fein is an absolute farce anyway. Apart from 
>being totally wrong from a free-speech point of view, it simply doesn't 
>work. All that journalists/broadcasters have to do is to use a voice-over. 
>They can (and do) broadcast the pictures and simultaneously use the voice 
>of an actor with the appropriate accent. 
    
    Mark R., I have to agree with Mark H., the censorship does make a
    difference - the act of dubbing Sinn Fein immediately puts a stigma
    on them, whether rightly or wrongly deserved.
    
    If Sinn Fein members are committing terrorists acts, then arrest them
    convict them, and incarcerate them.
    
    Censorship is undemocratic and against all notions of free speech - it
    is something that you would see in the old Soviet Union, East Germany,
    or Poland.  Which political group will Britain censor next? Gays? Jews?

>>           the act of dubbing Sinn Fein immediately puts a stigma
>>    on them, whether rightly or wrongly deserved.
  
As I stated previously, Sinn Fein already had the stigma. The effect that 
censorship has had on this, in my opinion, is probably to have *increased* 
sympathy for them.

  
>>    Censorship is undemocratic and against all notions of free speech - it
>>    is something that you would see in the old Soviet Union, East Germany,
>>    or Poland. 

I agree and have said so - although not in so many words.


>>     Which political group will Britain censor next? Gays? Jews?

None hopefully. I'd like to see the Sinn Fein censorship lifted. If any 
group is to be censored though, it's likely to be the far-right groups such 
as the BNP (British Nationalist Party). 

Mark R. 

    Folks
    
    Like everything else, nothing in this life is ever black and white.
    
    I do not agree that censorship should not happen.
    
    If a political party is inciting racial hatred - should that be
    allowed? Before you answer that remember that everyone who watches  TV
    or listens to radio is an adult capable of making an informed decision.
    There are also children and teenagers out there who can be easily
    influenced.
    
    Society has to protect itself.
    
    The problem with censorship is how to control Government actions. In
    this, as with other aspects of "power" the old saying holds true "Power
    corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely".
    
    Now to censorship in the 6 counties.
    
    I'm not sure whether or not I agree with the decision to censor Sinn
    Fein, however, given the fact that it has been done I cannot see 
    why people like Ian Pasiley, who does not necessarily support violence
    but, in my mind CERTAINLY DOES incite sectarian hatred, can continue to
    have access to public broadcasting.
    
    The process would be a lot easier to accept if it was applied fairly.

From: 2.1001::[email protected] (Carl Malamud)
To: [email protected]
Subject: Congressional Hearings are Delayed

Greetings -

You recently sent mail to [email protected].

The hearings have been delayed until October or November.  I've added your name
to the list of people interested in the subject and will notify you when they
are rescheduled.  You can still send your comments to [email protected]
and I will forward them to the Subcommittee staff.

Regards,

Carl Malamud
Internet Multicasting Service



*******************************************************************************

  Mark Holohan, DEC, USA        "Character is what you are in the dark" - BB
  [email protected]
  
  The opinions expressed are not necessarily the opinions of 
  Digital Equipment Corporation.

*******************************************************************************

    
    By the way, the Republic also bars Sinn Fein members from radio and TV.
    

    re: last
    
    untrue... RTE are the censors, not the Government.

    
    No. The government ARE the censors. Section 31 of the Broadcasting Act
    prohibits any broadcasting/interviews with certain groups. RTE have no
    choice but to obey the law.
    
    Denis.