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News Headlines Wednesday July 23rd 2003 BBC HAS TAPE OF INTERVIEW WITH DR KELLY The BBC possesses a tape recording of the late scientist Dr David Kelly expressing his concerns over the Government's disputed dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. The recording was made by Newsnight journalist Susan Watts and is expected to be presented as evidence to the Hutton inquiry into Dr Kelly's death last week. Meanwhile, BBC chairman Gavyn Davies said there was no plan, in the wake of Dr Kelly's apparent suicide, to call an emergency meeting to revisit the corporation's governors' forthright support of its news department and reporter Andrew Gilligan. Read More:
PRESS FREEDOM GROUP REJECTS FINDINGS INTO JOURNALIST'S DEATH A press freedom group has rejected the findings of an inquiry into the death of photojournalist Zahra Kazemi at the hands of police in Iran. The Canadian freelance died after being detained by police on June 23 while taking photographs of a prison in Tehran. Reporters Without Borders claimed the official report did not establish who was responsible for her death, or whether the blow she received to her head occurred when she was struck with a blunt object or if she hit an object when she fell. Kazemi is expected to be buried in Iran today, despite requests from members of her family for her body's return to Canada. Read More: TRIBUTES PAID TO BRITISH JOURNALIST SHOT DEAD IN BAGHDAD Family and friends have paid tribute to the young British journalist shot dead in Baghdad. More than 500 mourners attended the funeral of 24-year-old Richard Wild in the Scottish Borders yesterday. The Cambridge graduate had gone to Iraq in the hope of establishing himself as a war correspondent by covering the aftermath of the conflict. The family's minister, Rev Bruce Neill, said yesterday that his decision to go to Baghdad should be admired as he was being true to his own aspirations. Meanwhile, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders warned conditions were still dangerous for journalists in Iraq. Read More: IRAQ WAR MEDIA COVERAGE WILL BE DEBATED AT TV FESTIVAL The media's coverage of the war in Iraq will be the focus of a debate at this year's Edinburgh International TV Festival. Saddam Hussein: My Part in His Downfall, chaired by veteran foreign reporter Jeremy Bowen, will also include contributions from BBC "scud stud" Rageh Omaar, head of Sky News, Nick Pollard, and head of BBC TV news Roger Mosey. Other festival highlights include a an Alternative MacTaggart lecture from the former editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Rod Liddle, and a debate on whether the UK is ready for Fox-style TV news with Mail on Sunday journalist Peter Hitchens. The festival will run from August 22-24. Read More: NEW BILL GIVES ITALIAN PM GREATER CONTROL OVER MEDIA Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been given the green light to expand his media empire after the country's upper house of parliament approved a controversial media bill allowing cross-ownership between TV and newspapers. Berlusconi already controls what nearly half the population watch on television with his three commercial channels, prompting allegations of a conflict of interest between his public and private roles. Just minutes before senators approved the bill, Lucia Annunziata, head of the state broadcaster RAI, resigned. In a parting shot to her former boss she said RAI was in a precarious situation in a market "distorted by conflict of interest." Read More: AMERICAN FREELANCER ON TRIAL IN ACEH An American freelancer who spent a month embedded with separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh has gone on trial in the provincial capital charged with immigration offences. William Nessen could face up to five years in jail if found guilty of 'misusing his visa', although he was working on a journalist's visa at the time he was detained. An immigration official called to give evidence at the trial said Nessen's visa was valid but his activities, in associating with the separatists Free Aceh Movement (GAM), were not. Nessen was said to be compiling information for a book on the GAM. The trial was adjourned until July 30. Read More:
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