Dangerous questions

In response to Michael McCarthy's recent despair over climate change (Independent, 7 March; but more so his article in The Tablet last month), Tom Barker is correct to point to the current absence of radical greens and to the "impotence of a correspondent who can only report" (letters, 10 March). But the deeper problem is that correspondents do not even report what they should be reporting.

Where are the reports addressing the unsustainable nature of endless economic growth on a finite planet? Or drawing links between likely climate catastrophe and the damaging core practices of global corporations and investors? Or highlighting the obstructive tactics of big business to truly sustainable policies? Or pointing out the billions spent by business and the public relations industry in promoting unsustainable consumer consumption?

Mainstream media, with its heavy reliance on advertising revenue to remain afloat, is failing to alert the public to the true nature of the global crisis we are in. The profit-led media is part of the same system of state-corporate power that is leading this planet to disaster; unless the public wakes up in time.

Evidence of US war crimes in Fallujah: BBC news silence

To: Helen Boaden, BBC director of news, helen.boaden@bbc.co.uk

Dear Helen Boaden,

I hope you are well.

You may recall that I emailed you on 15th February regarding evidence of US war crimes in Fallujah, reported by independent journalist Dahr Jamail. See:

http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000196.php

I asked, via the BBC Press Office, whether you would be investigating such reports and addressing the evidence in BBC news bulletins. You responded on 23rd February via a BBC spokesperson:

"The conduct of coalition forces has been examined at length by BBC programmes, and if justified, that will continue to be the case."

You thus avoided responding to the specific evidence I quoted, including the disturbing report of the alleged killing by US forces of a six year-old boy who was crying over the corpses of his parents. A follow-up query, submitted via the BBC Press Office on 25th February, asking which BBC programmes had addressed the conduct of coalition forces, including the specific war crimes evidence in Fallujah, went unanswered.

Further evidence of US war crimes continues to emerge, as Aljazeera reported yesterday at:

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=7216

As the report says: "Dr. Khalid ash-Shaykhli, an official at Iraq’s health ministry, said that the U.S. military used internationally banned weapons during its deadly offensive in the city of Fallujah."

Again, I have not seen this covered in BBC news. Perhaps I have missed it. Surely it should be prominently featured in the headlines of your main news bulletins at 1, 6 and 10 o'clock?

Could you possibly please explain why the BBC news has apparently yet to broadcast any reports regarding evidence of contraventions of international law by US forces in Fallujah? Perhaps you are already investigating such harrowing evidence?

I look forward to hearing from you.

best wishes,
David Cromwell