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LM press releases
PRESS RELEASE
18 April 1997
ITN REPORTS FROM BOSNIAN CAMP - LM EDITOR SAYS "WE STAND BY OUR
STORY"
After today's High Court apology by Two-Ten Communications to
ITN, over allegations made in a Living Marxism press release,
LM Editor Mick Hume issued the following statement:
"The apology from Two-Ten Communications has no bearing on the
issues at stake in LM's own libel battle with ITN over Thomas
Deichmann's story, 'The Picture That Fooled the World', published
in our February issue.
Two-Ten is only a commercial distributor of press releases which,
as its own solicitor's courtroom statement makes clear, 'does
not make any comment or judgement on the content of such press
releases'. Judgement as to who is telling the truth about ITN's
award-winning reports from Trnopolje camp will have to wait until
all the evidence is finally made public.
We have that evidence. We know we are right. We stand by our story.
And we repeat our challenge to ITN: if you are so certain that
you are telling the truth, show all of the film that your team
shot at Trnopolje on 5 August 1992, and let the world judge for
itself.
ITN's purpose in pursuing the sideshow case against Two-Ten (who
have paid no damages) has been to establish a precedent and so
scare the rest of the media off Thomas Deichmann's story. The
result of this gagging order is that a story which has been debated
in serious papers across Europe remains blockaded in Britain.
The one interesting thing to come out of today's hearing is that
ITN and its journalists have been forced to admit, FOR THE FIRST
TIME IN ALMOST FIVE YEARS since the reports were first broadcast,
that there was NO BARBED WIRE FENCE SURROUNDING FIKRET ALIC and
the other men at Trnopolje. There will be many more such revelations
before the case is over.
Watch this space." |