- Simon Wilson
- 19 Mar 07, 01:12 PM
It has now been a week since our colleague Alan Johnston left this building and headed for his apartment in Gaza City. Although we have not been able to establish exactly what has happened to Alan, it seems certain that he has been abducted and is being held somewhere in the Gaza Strip.
As time passes, we are growing increasingly concerned about Alan's safety.
Over the past week, we have worked intensively with the authorities in Gaza and elsewhere to try to locate Alan and we continue to receive assurances that everything possible is being done.
However, it is disappointing that after seven days there has still been no firm word either about his whereabouts or his condition.
We call on everyone with influence on this situation to redouble their efforts now that Alan has been missing for more than one week.
Simon Wilson is the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Washington Bureau Editor
On this week's Newswatch, the programme which discusses viewers' complaints about ´óÏó´«Ã½ TV News, Peter Barron, editor of Newsnight, discusses the reporting of CCTV footage showing a policeman punching a woman and whether race was part of the story.
David Shukman, the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s environment and science correspondnet responds to various criticisms of the ´óÏó´«Ã½â€™s coverage of climate change. You can watch the programme by clicking here.
- Jonathan Baker
- 19 Mar 07, 10:43 AM
The difficulties and dangers of reporting what’s happening in Iraq are well known. The ´óÏó´«Ã½ has done better than most at chronicling events in the four years since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein – not least by maintaining a presence in Baghdad throughout that time, something few other media organisations have been prepared to do. But it’s a constant frustration that we can’t travel freely throughout the country, reflecting the different experiences of ordinary Iraqis in their own villages and neighbourhoods.
Carrying out opinion polls in Iraq, like , is an effective way of addressing that problem. This is the third poll we’ve commissioned in partnership with ABC News of America and other media organisations. Like the last two, it’s thrown up a wealth of fascinating detail about the views of the Iraqi people and the circumstances in which they live.
What emerges is a genuine nationwide picture. More than 2,000 people were questioned in more than 450 villages and neighbourhoods in every province of Iraq. Each of them answered more than 50 questions about their personal circumstances and their hopes for the years ahead.
, at the end of 2005, found them generally hopeful about the future – about improved security and the government they were about to vote into office.
The story this time is one of disappointment and disillusion. Most people feel the new government has delivered little in terms of basic essentials like access to electricity, fuel or fresh water, and lacks the will to take the decisions that will make a genuine difference. Security, or lack of it, remains a key concern. Although the presence of coalition forces is detested, most people think they should stay until some of these things have improved.
This time, we’ve been able to break the figures down to compare the responses given by the Sunni and Shia people who took part in the poll. The results are striking. On a whole range of important issues, we see diametrically opposing views.
Attitudes to the execution of Saddam Hussein offer a good example of this polarisation. Asked whether it was appropriate and was helpful to the future of Iraq, opinion was more or less evenly divided. But the breakdown on religious lines shows that almost all Shias think it was helpful and almost all Sunnis think it wasn’t.
There’s some very rich material in the detail of the poll findings. Taken together, they make a significant contribution to our continuing efforts to report this important but uniquely demanding story.
Jonathan Baker is deputy head of Newsgathering
The Independent: Article on whether short video clips will replace longer programmes, including news bulletins and current affairs shows. ()
Daily Mirror: Reports on Director General Mark Thompson's comments that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ needs to restore viewers' trust after the recent TV phone-in scandal. ()
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