Journalist Peter Wickham Contacts Barbados Free Press
The Nation News edited out the parts of Peter Wickham’s recent article that addressed human rights violations in China.
In a post on Barbados Free Press, Mr. Wickham told readers that the Nation News “clipped” the final section from his May 14, 2008 article People & Things – Perceptions Of China.
Barbados Free Press was critical of Wickham’s failure to mention human rights violations by Communist China, but it now appears that this unsurprising censorship was the work of the cowardly lapdog editors at the Nation News.
Although we still disagree strongly with Mr. Wickham’s views on China, we always encourage frank discussion and are pleased to print the censored section of his article now…
Finally, it would be imprudent not to address the issue of human rights since this is a major concern of those who are less sympathetic to China. It should not surprise readers to note that none of us witnessed major Human Rights abuses while we were there, however this does not mean that the Chinese government could not have abused the rights of its citizens in the past or might not do so in the future. This author, however does not necessarily subscribe to the Western view that there is one appropriate standard of human rights, even as I am prepared to argue that the standards employed in the US, China and Barbados are all inconsistent with my own personal standard.
Hence the Chinese government might be considered “heavy handed” in dealing with its citizens in some regard, but the Barbados and American governments are no less guilty. In China you can be put to death for some infractions, which is no different to Barbados and the USA and this author believes that all three governments violate Universal principles of Human Rights by doing so. In the final analysis, Human Rights is always best defined within a specific cultural and historical context and will invariably run afoul of another person’s beliefs, hence this issue will always cause discomfort in the context of international relations.
… section of Peter Wickham’s recent article that was censored by the editors at The Nation News.
Not The First Time That Peter Wickham Has Been Censored By The Nation News
Back on December 31, 2007, Peter Wickham approached Barbados Free Press and Barbados Underground blogs to have an article published as the Nation News had banned him from writing during the election. We published Journalist Peter Wickham Banned From Nation News – So We’ll Print His Article Here.
After the DLP/David Thompson election victory, Peter Wickham published another article where is stated that the “BLP and Owen Arthur… created a climate of oppression” and that the media had supported the BLP for all those years essentially due to fear of reprisal. (see BFP’s Peter Wickham: “BLP and Owen Arthur…Created A Climate Of Oppression…”)
Now those unprincipled cowardly editors at The Nation News have again shown what lapdogs they are by censoring references to human rights violations in China. We wish to remind them what we said just after the recent DLP election victory – a victory that was very much impacted by Barbados blogs…
A New Generation Won’t Tolerate Corrupt Government Or Cowardly News Media
Welcome to the future. Most of us newly-active Bajan voters are young and idealistic… and we are online.
The oldstream Barbados news media lost the respect of the majority of Bajans a long time ago, and it looks like they are still up to their old tricks – the only difference being they are now trying to please their newly-elected DLP masters as they crawl on their knees begging for money from the Communist Chinese.
Further Reading
BFP: Peter Wickham: China Has Democracy – No Human Rights Violations, Everything Fine!
20 Comments
May 15, 2008 at 5:08 am
The missing section from the article really do not show Mr. Wickham’s castigation of China’s human right violation. What I am seeing is nuff public relation gimmickry since the writer prefer not to anger the PM and his delegation. Sir Lloyd can do without unnecessary diplomatic reconciliation asthe first thing on his assignment.
The editing is neither here or there.
May 15, 2008 at 5:16 am
BFP never said the article “castigated” China’s human rights violations. BFP said they disagreed with his position and that the Nation cut the sections that MENTIONED human rights violations.
I agree with you (Tell me Why) that Wickham’s position is gimmickry and calculated not to embarrass.
He was bought and paid for by the Chinese. That is obvious.
May 15, 2008 at 11:21 am
Last time the Nation was discovered to have cut anything to do with China was when they cut the People out of the People’s Republic of China and replaced it with Republic of China.
Maybe they cut it to shorten the article to make it fit the space they had, …. like they did the caption on the photo last week.
Computers make it easy for goofs to be made.
May 15, 2008 at 12:10 pm
According to BFP above, Peter Wickham wrote on the subject of human rights: “In China you can be put to death for some infractions, which is no different to Barbados and the USA and this author believes that all three governments violate Universal principles of Human Rights by doing so.”
This is most interesting. I was not aware that people had been put to death for exercising their human rights in Barbados and the USA.
This information is critical to me. I would be grateful if anyone could provide instances of people being executed by the government of Barbados or the USA for exercising their human rights.
May 15, 2008 at 12:51 pm
“Hence the Chinese government might be considered “heavy handed” in dealing with its citizens in some regard, but the Barbados and American governments are no less guilty. In China you can be put to death for some infractions, which is no different to Barbados and the USA and this author believes that all three governments violate Universal principles of Human Rights by doing so.”
Quoted so that you can read again and appreciate Wickham’s talent for sophistry in trying to equate the human rights record of his homeland with that of China. I will even give you a sample of the evidence he might have used to convince you. China massacred some of its protesting citizens at Tiananmen Square, so what, Barbados won’t let homosexuals bugger each other in peace, a clear violation of their human rights.
Wickham must have thought long and hard to come up the specious reasoning evident in those two paragraphs, but I doubt anyone sees it as anything but a cop out.
May 15, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Keltruth, he did not say that people were put to death in Barbados and the US for exercising their human rights. He simply stated that people were put to death for some infractions of the law in ALL THREE places.
May 15, 2008 at 2:10 pm
Keltruth, he did not say that people were put to death in Barbados and the US for exercising their human rights. He simply stated that people were put to death for some infractions of the law in ALL THREE places.
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Justice, I cannot believe that you are trying to justify Peter’s statement regarding the word “infractions”. Keltruth is correct with the aligning of China with the USA and Barbados as per Peter’s statement.
Infraction mean: misdemeanour, violation, infringement (a crime less serious than a felony) and since a felony is (a serious crime (such as murder or arson), Peter Wickham is confirming without doubt that Barbados usually put to death people for human rights violation, or child support, or any simple crimes.
Justice, I am disappointed with your reasoning.
May 15, 2008 at 3:26 pm
Also it was a section on the topic of human rights!
“Finally, it would be imprudent not to address the issue of human rights … “
May 15, 2008 at 3:36 pm
Well it is clear to me that Mr. Wickham has some knowledge of the atrocities associated with US and Barbados. We obviously know that in the US, murderous acts are carried out in secrecy but with serious implications for specific targetted groups, countries, or persons for what ever benefits, oppression or control the US seeks to acheive. Now in Barbados we have alot of rumours and alleges of atrocities committed in order to silence persons for reasons of not exposing the evil of the affluent and powerful. Relative to rather we reason Mr. Wickham’ statement as aligning death for infractions to that of Barbados and the US the point is, many things occur in the US and Barbados that are not general knowledge to the public. In this regard I find Mr. Wickhams disclosure to be a balance one.
May 15, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Relative to rather we reason Mr. Wickham’ statement as aligning death for infractions to that of Barbados and the US the point is, many things occur in the US and Barbados that are not general knowledge to the public. In this regard I find Mr. Wickhams disclosure to be a balance one.
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Come on my friend, since you seems to know such occurrences, do tell the blogging community when, where, why and how such atrocities happened in our fair land. Again, you might just trying to substantiate Peter’s position.
May 15, 2008 at 7:04 pm
The only sentence of death in Barbados is for murder and Wickham knows this. What other human rights violations are you put to death for either in China, the US or Barbados? No, I am disappointed with your reasoning, TMW.
May 15, 2008 at 7:21 pm
He simply stated that people were put to death for some infractions of the law in ALL THREE places.
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The word “infractions” was used by Peter Wickham and you concurred with him. Check the word “infractions” and you will see it mean (a crime less serious than a felony), and we all know a “felony” is ‘a serious crime like murder, arson etc”. Why then would Mr. Wickham use such a word within a statement of facts; and you now trying to defend his action. These are serious times and people of the intellect of Mr. Wickham should be careful with the spoken/written word.
May 15, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Justice:
I am not interested what happens in China, but I take offence when intelligent people use words that can damage the social fabric of this country. Peter Wickham should be man enough to state he made a fundamental error by linking us to the atrocities, such as those committed by the People Republic of China.
May 15, 2008 at 9:30 pm
In China you can have more than one child per couple?
May 15, 2008 at 9:46 pm
The truth is that in China we only know a small part of the disgusting human rights abuses that occur because of the stranglehold that the Chinese government has on the media there.
May 16, 2008 at 12:21 am
Waterboy:
To stem the growing population, a law was passed about 15 years ago that people who had one or more children were not allowed to have anymore. Young couples were only allowed to have one. It is a crime to disobey this law, although it is done regularly in the country areas where people hope for a boy. If the population growth was not curtailed, it is estimated that China today would have 3 billion people.
In India, forced sterilization was imposed and not well received, although those with $$$ have abortions to get rid of girls. They now number one billion and counting.
It is because of these large populations that they (india, china, vietnam and Egypt) recently restricted the export of rice.
May 16, 2008 at 6:50 pm
We can not begin to understand the way of thinking of countries with totally different cultural, economic, governmental systems and needs that so differ from our own and judge them with the same view from our experiences. I will never make light of the human right issues in any country and we should not sit by and ignore the cases of such coming of China. That said what Mr. Wickham wrote about is what he saw and I wasn’t looking for him or any of the other journalist to write about anything more than what they saw.
I went to school with people from China, I have friends that studied in China and they have had great opportunities and experiences there. In a past job I had the opportunity to work with Chinese companies and the staff members I mainly interacted with all seem to enjoy a relative high standard of life and spoke freely about life and there views as we got to know each other better over the years. Not everything about China is bad and one going there may never come in to contact with certain issues that have been in the international press.
Right now I pray for those who got hurt or lost a love one in the recent earthquake in China.
May 17, 2008 at 3:37 pm
The truth is that the death penalty in Barbados is all but dead, with the last hanging taking place in 1984. Whereas in China, up to 15,000 are executed each year. So, Peter, it is not fair to compare Barbados and China in that regard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/world/asia/09china.html
September 13, 2008 at 11:42 pm
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