- Caleb Maupin, another Grayzone contributor also comes under fire... Archived Message
Posted by Ian M
on July 19, 2022, 8:40 pm, in reply to "Ofcom finds RT in breach of due impartiality rules"
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On the March 1st news broadcasts, from p.115 in the doc: ***** 'CM: “...the Russian Ambassador pointed out that the Ukrainian President doesn't seem to have the real power in the country. He took power on a platform of peace and bringing the country back together. However, at this point, the Ukrainian President, he has proved himself, he's proved himself to be weak and have no real power” VN: “He demonstrated that he is weak, that he has no political will and power in, in the circumstances he found himself in to resist, to resist those radicals who, who are the main, main political driving force in current, in today's Ukraine”. CM: “He went on when confronted with allegations that Russia had bombed civilian areas. He told the reporters asking those questions to verify the reports because there's quite a bit of fake news going around and there's quite a few videos, videos that have come from places like Syria or Libya, videos from even video games, that are being circulated and claimed and passed off as showing Russian atrocities. He went on to say that Russia did not bomb civilian areas in Kiev. He made that point. So that's, that's the Russian Ambassador, speaking to reporters in the UN press briefing room. Now, this comes after debate that took place at the UN General Assembly Hall. At the UN General Assembly, the United States and its allies put forward a resolution before the UN General Assembly to condemn Russia. Now, when that resolution was put forward, we first heard from the UN Secretary General. After that, we then heard from, from the representative of Ukraine, who thundered and made heated allegations against Russia, compared it to World War Two, etc. This is what we heard from the UN Representative of Ukraine when he spoke at the General Assembly Hall”. SK: “Deadly air strikes dropped on civilians’ heads across the entire country, and the Russian troops cross Ukraine's borders from the territory of Russia, Belarus and the occupied parts of Ukraine's Donbas and Crimea. Does it remind you of something, doesn't it? Indeed. Very clear parallels could be drawn with the beginning of the second World War too. It was chosen by someone who is right now sitting in the bunker. We know what happened with the person who sat in the bunker in Berlin in May 1945”. CM: “Now it's also important to note that, in the UN General Assembly Hall, Nebenzya, the Russian Ambassador, had the opportunity to dissect some of these allegations. He got up and he talked about the need for negotiations. He talked about how this resolution that was put forward was not a pro- Ukrainian resolution, as it does not put any blame on the forces that instigated this conflict with their shelling and attacks on Donetsk and Lugansk. And as well as that, you know, their continued escalation, threats of Ukraine to join NATO, piling lethal weapons into Ukraine. And from there, he talked about the need to not believe everything circulating throughout mainstream media. A lot of the reports coming out of Ukraine, widely circulated in American media, have been debunked. He pointed out that, at this point, what is needed is negotiation. This is what Nebenzya said when speaking to the UN General Assembly Hall”. VN: [Voiceover in English] “First of all, direct dialogue between Kiev and the Donbass was needed. However, there's been yet more confirmation by the country's leadership that Ukraine is not ready for such dialogue, for taking steps to grant Donbass special status as provided for by the Minsk agreements. In the end, this convinced us that we simply have no right to make the residents of Donbass suffer further”. CM: “Now, the UN General Assembly includes all member states. It's not simply the members represented on the Security Council, and it's worth noting that a number of UN member states have granted recognition to the Donetsk People's Republic [“DPR”] and the Lugansk People's Republic [“LPR”]. Nicaragua has recognised the People's Republics in Donbass. There's also been recognition from Venezuela, from Cuba, from Iran, and other forces around the world have granted recognition. Belarus has recognised the People's Republic, so it is not simply Russia that is standing alone here. Russia has allies around the world who recognise these Republics. Now, at this point, when looking over that meeting of the UN General Assembly, it was very clear there were stark differences. The allies of the United States hurled allegations at Russia, a lot of them very unfounded, based on internet rumours, based on debunked claims that have been circulating around Western media. But Russia stood firm, stood for the truth, called for a de-escalation, highlighted the suffering of the peoples of Donbass and Lugansk and what they've been through for the past eight years. And it appears that, while there was a lot of podium pounding from the United States and its allies, this meeting of the General Assembly did not really accomplish anything. This was a lot of smoke and mirrors and theatrics by allies of the United States in their efforts to demonise Russia and obscure the real roots of the conflict”. ***** with these parts offending Ofcom's sensibilities: ***** •“Deadly air strikes dropped on civilians’ heads across the entire country, and the Russian troops cross Ukraine's borders from the territory of Russia, Belarus and the occupied parts of Ukraine's Donbass and Crimea”; • “this resolution that was put forward was not a pro-Ukrainian resolution, as it does not put any blame on the forces that instigated this conflict with their shelling and attacks on Donetsk and Lugansk”; • “First of all, direct dialogue between Kiev and the Donbass was needed. However, there's been yet more confirmation by the country's leadership that Ukraine is not ready for such dialogue, for taking steps to grant Donbass special status as provided for by the Minsk agreements. In the end, this convinced us that we simply have no right to make the residents of Donbass suffer further”; • “It's worth noting that a number of UN member states have granted recognition to the [DPR] and the [LPR]. Nicaragua has recognised the People's Republics in Donbass”; and • “Russia stood firm, stood for the truth, called for a de-escalation, highlighted the suffering of the people of Donbass and Lugansk and what they've been through for the past eight years”. ***** Concluding that this, again was a 'highly critical statement about Ukrainian forces [...] which did not include the 'perspective of the Ukrainian state and/or military' (p.124) and that Russia 'stood for the truth' whereas Ukrainian sources 'made "allegations", "based on debunked claims” and “unfounded” ' - a possibly legitimate criticism. Again, no comment on whether Maupin's reporting was correct on point of fact, just a complaint that the Ukrainian propagandists weren't allowed space to put across their point of view - despite having free reign to spread their lies across all the other western media outlets, without (I'm going to make an educated guess) the 'due impartiality' of printing the response of Russian officials in every instance. I notice that, in their reply to my FOI request, Ofcom subtly dodge the responsibility of establishing the 'documented falsehoods' I asked for, saying that 'we do not usually disclose information relating to the substance of a complaint where this information exceeds what is published in our decisions'. So again, it's the stink of double standards, with RT required to be scrupulous at every turn whereas western media outlets can violate 'due impartiality' whenever it suits their purposes, with obvious lies thrown into the mix, and Ofcom won't make a peep. |