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With this in mind a
small group of concerned citizens started up an WHO IS SIGNING THE PETITION The petition, calling for fair treatment of Tony Blair and fair reporting of the Iraq inquiry, is attracting signatures from people all over the world (including Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia) who are appalled by the abuse that is being directed at our former Prime Minister and who are sick and tired of those who have found him guilty of various crimes before the inquiry has considered all the evidence, far less reached any conclusions. Here’s a typical comment from Birmingham “I believe that Tony Blair has been taunted and terrorized enough over the Iraq war. I want to see it end.” And from Bulgaria, “Mr Blair you are a true leader, you have stepped forth when all others have stepped back.” A longer selection of like-minded comments can be found in John Rentoul’s post “We few, we happy few” In that piece Mr Rentoul, the chief political commentator at the Independent on Sunday describes the petition as “a brave venture, which was always about quality rather than numbers.” Prominent signatories include Lord George Foulkes, John Rentoul, chief political commentator at the Independent on Sunday, Oliver Kamm, leader writer and columnist at the Times, Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Tom Harris MP, Paul Trippett and John Burton from Tony Blair’s former Sedgefield constituency, Hopi Sen, a leading political blogger and Jessica Asato, former acting Director of the Labour pressure group, Progress. Nick Cohen has also expressed his support. AIMS OF THE PETITION Starting a debate Firstly, the petition is intended to start a debate about how Tony Blair is being treated with regard to this inquiry and how its proceedings are being reported in the media. John Rentoul has already picked up on this in his ”Iraq Inquiry Coverage Rebuttal Service”. We can understand that, as our former Prime Minister, Mr Blair is considered by some to have much to answer for over Iraq. And thus we appreciate that this inquiry has its place. What we cannot accept, however, is the attempt by those who have made up their minds in advance, to turn the inquiry into an Iran-type show trial. (note the hostile demonstration outside the Conference Centre when Tony Blair gave his testimony and George Monbiot’s scurrilous piece in the Guardian headed “ Wanted:Tony Blair for war crimes. Arrest him and claim your reward”) Countering the expected anti-Blair bias Another aim of the petition and this website, is to form the basis of a campaign to counter the anti-Blair activity that is taking place over the period of the inquiry. Our concern is that media coverage of this activity and media competition to lay a killer blow on Mr Blair when evidence is taken at the inquiry will taint any outcome in his favour and even make it unacceptable as was the case with previous inquiries. Another concern, prompted by Sir John Chilcot’s efforts to reassure the public that the inquiry will not be a whitewash, is that the inquiry will turn into a BLACKwash i.e. an OVER-critical verdict on the UK’s part in the war in order to demonstrate that it is NOT a whitewash. In sum, the simple message of the petition and the campaign is that Blair-baiting should play no part in the Iraq inquiry. And it opens up a much wider and hugely important issue about the role of the media in matters of this sort. WHAT WE HAVE BEEN DOING LATEST UPDATE (Feb 2011) Our complaint about Jeremy Paxman breaking the BBC's impartialty rules by writing a a biased article on the Iraq war has just been upheld by the Director of BBC News. The story has received coverage in the Independent on Sunday here, the Daily Mail here and in John Rentoul's blog here. A full page ad conveying the message of the campaign was placed in the New Statesman and a related article was posted at New Statesman Blogs. A four-screen moving version of the ad was placed at the website of the Press Gazette, visited by most journalists in the country It is now on YouTube with an audio background here. Another half-page ad was placed in the New Statesman following Tony Blair's second appearance at the Iraq Inquiry on 21 January 2010. Campaign members have also been active in making regular complaints to the BBC over their biased coverage of the inquiry here, here and here for details) and in rebutting anti-Blair propaganda in the blogosphere (a full time job!). CAMPAIGN CONTACTS Coordinator: Stan Rosenthal Spokesman: John Rentoul
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SUPPORTIVE WEB SITES
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Think Tank Blog
A comprehensive article about the petition can be found here
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