No defence
IT may be sickening that a very senior BBC journalist gave expert evidence to help an evil Somali rapist avoid deportation.
What is even more shocking is that guidelines put in place by her managers allowed her to do it.
It’s sickening that BBC journalist Mary Harper was allowed to help evil rapist Yaqub Ahmed avoid deportation[/caption]
It is estimated BBC Africa Editor Mary Harper could have pocketed £2,500 in return for ‘expert’ evidence[/caption]
It is estimated BBC Africa Editor Mary Harper could have pocketed £2,500 in return for “expert” evidence to an immigration tribunal of Yaqub Ahmed, who brutally raped a 16-year-old girl.
She told judges he would face punishment by hardline Islamist terror group Al-Shabaab if sent back to Somalia.
To which most right-thinking people might be inclined to respond: Good.
Instead, Harper, who has given evidence for other Somali criminals fighting deportation, put together such a fierce defence of Ahmed that the judges ended up questioning her objectivity.
How on earth have BBC managers allowed one of their top journalists to freelance for a convicted rapist while reporting the news?
And if she is capable of such a perceived lack of objectivity, how are viewers supposed to believe her reports?
This is a deeply damaging blow to the BBC’s reputation and credibility at a time when it is already rightly under fire for the anti-Israeli tone of much of its coverage of the war against Hamas.
In her spare time, Mary Harper wrote a book called Everything You Have Told Me Is True.
Can viewers really trust the BBC to do the same?
Hunt for growth
JEREMY Hunt must find a way this week to ease our crippling tax burden.
The Chancellor needs to cut National Insurance for small businesses.
He has to tackle punishing income tax thresholds that drag record numbers of workers into higher tax brackets.
Under-the-pump drivers deserve an ongoing fuel duty cut while our struggling pub and hospitality industry badly hopes for a break on booze.
None of these measures should seriously affect already-falling inflation or spook the markets.
But boosting small business and putting more money in pockets IS the only way out of our low-growth mess.
And the Tories simply cannot afford another damp squib.
Coddled fiend
IT was The Sun’s campaigning journalism on the monstrous case of taxi rapist John Worboys that led to fundamental change in the way parole hearings were supposed to be conducted.
But Jon Venables has made a mockery of justice again.
After winning a ruling that his hearing must be held in private to protect his mental state, the paedophile killer simply never turned up anyway.
Why was it allowed?
