Sandra Smith

What they said about ... upheaval in Ukraine

Sandra Smith — 2004-11-25T16:32:00Z

Ukraine appeared to be on the brink of revolution on Tuesday, as tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of Kiev to protest against the preliminary results of the country's presidential election. "The pro-Moscow government of Ukraine claims that the spectacularly corrupt incumbent prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, received the majority of votes", but "exit polling, opinion polling, international election observers, Ukrainian local authorities and the people agree that [the] opposition leader, Viktor Yushchenko, a pro-western Democrat, won," said Ralph Peters in the New York Post. (...) [page 28 | The Editor]

- / Guardian

What they said about ... the Falluja mosque killing

Sandra Smith — 2004-11-18T15:50:00Z

Video footage that appeared to show the fatal shooting of a wounded Iraqi man in a Falluja mosque by a US marine fuelled controversy about America's military conduct in Iraq in yesterday's press.

"Severe damage" had been inflicted on the image that the US had hoped to project from Falluja, reckoned Dan Murphy in the Christian Science Monitor . The clip had "already become more fodder on jihadi websites peddling the conspiracy theory that the US is on a crusade against global Islam. It also caused cringing in the capitals of US friends and allies." (...) [page 28 | The Editor]

- / Guardian

What they said about ... the election in Ukraine

Sandra Smith — 2004-11-02T16:04:00Z

With the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election failing to deliver a clear winner after Sunday's vote, the papers looked ahead to the run-off. With nearly all the votes counted, the prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, was just one percentage point ahead of his main, reformist challenger, Viktor Yushchenko. This made it impossible for either candidate to reach the 50% support needed for a first-round victory, forcing a second vote on November 21. (...) [page 26 | The Editor]

- / Guardian

The Hitler film

Sandra Smith — 2004-08-31T15:42:00Z

Almost 60 years after the end of the Third Reich, you've just had your first encounter with Adolf Hitler, close-up on the big screen. Der Untergang (The Downfall: Hitler and the End of the Third Reich) is about his last 12 days in the Berlin bunker.

After emerging from a Berlin screening of the film you notice, as did the Berliner Morgenpost , that your fellow cinemagoers seem to be all at once "impressed, bewildered and confused". Undeterred, you are still anxious to debate with them the impact of seeing Bruno Ganz (below) play the part of the dictator as "a regretful, soft-spoken, sensitive, non-ranting visionary" ( Independent ) and with an "intimacy and closeness" never seen before (Berliner Morgenpost). (...) [page 16 | The Editor]

- / Guardian

What they said about ... Pinochet

Sandra Smith — 2004-08-28T17:41:06Z

Thursday's decision by Chile's supreme court to uphold an earlier appeal court ruling stripping Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution was hailed by the papers and the families of his victims. They hope that the former dictator may at last face trial for abuses during his 17-year regime, including his role in Operation Condor - a joint effort by South American dictators to wipe out dissidents. Gen Pinochet could now be charged in connection with the disappearance of 19 leftists in the mid-1970s. (...) [page 24 | The Editor]

- / Guardian

What they said about ... the new BBC guidelines

Sandra Smith — 2004-06-26T15:25:11Z

The BBC unveiled new editorial guidelines on Wednesday in an effort to restore its reputation following criticism in the Hutton report. An internal review by former BBC director Ron Neil, which included proposals for a training college for the BBC's 7,000 journalists and a ban on using live broadcasts to break controversial stories, garnered a mixed response in the press.

"One journalist - Andrew Gilligan - makes a mistake ... and the BBC in its wisdom decides to spend this enormous sum re-training its vast army of journalists," scoffed Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail . It was a huge overreaction, a waste of money and an insult to the journalists. (...) [page 24 | The Editor]

The Latin American press on ... Ronald Reagan

Sandra Smith — 2004-06-09T14:06:11Z

While Americans mourned the death of Ronald Reagan, Latin America remembered a very different legacy left by the former US president.

In the Nicaraguan daily La Prensa , the Sandinista leader, Daniel Ortega, who led the country's revolutionary government against the US-backed Contra rebels, recalled how Reagan's presidency had impacted on the country. "In the 80s he launched a terrorist war against Nicaragua and had no scruples about using drug traffickers to support a dirty war against Nicaragua." Mr Ortega was not "happy or celebrating" Reagan's death, but nor "are we going to say now that Reagan respected international law and treated Nicaragua well".

Reagan had certainly succeeded in the fight against communism, admitted Guatemala's La Hora , but it was not possible to talk about him without also remembering his double standards. "That the ends justified the means was accepted by Americans, who forgave the Iran-Contra scandal with the same tolerance with which they are now forgiving the US for abuses against human rights." (...) [page 26 | The Editor]

What they said about ... the photos of Iraqi prisoners

Sandra Smith — 2004-05-04T09:24:23Z

The controversy surrounding photographs published in Saturday's Daily Mirror, allegedly showing UK troops torturing an Iraqi prisoner, continued yesterday. Increasing doubts about the images' authenticity and provenance were highlighted by the British press, but all agreed that whatever the veracity of the photographs, the damage had already been done. (...) [page 22 | The Editor]