An ICC prosecution official got a serious telling off from Judge Adrian Fulford, the presiding judge in the Thomas Lubanga trial, for an interview she gave to the lubangatrial.org website in March.
Read about it here.
It really is an extraordinary interview. Read it here. Beatrice le Frapper du Hellen, a senior ICC official who some describe as the real deputy prosecutor at the ICC, lays into Lubanga and the defence team - speculating about how long he'll go down for when he is inevitably found guilty. So much for the presumption of innocence.
This probably isn't great news for journalists looking for future interviews. The ICC is already the least media friendly international institution I've ever come across with a suspicion of journalists that borders on the paranoid.
What will they be like now?
Monday 24 May 2010
Wednesday 12 May 2010
LMO goes to Kenya
The Kenyan media are very excited about the visit of ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to Nairobi. He's come to "investigate" the post election violence and has been meeting with politicians and victims.
Obviously he's doing no investigating at all - just the usual politicising. Investigating is the work of a separate team that comes from The Hague to assemble the ICC's case against those deemed most responsible for the killings there after the 2007 elections.
The merits of flying in small teams of investigators for short visits - and how effective this is in developing a solid case - can be debated at another time!
What's concerning me is the awful local media coverage of the prosector's visit. Consider this piece from Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper. The headline promises a December trial for the suspects when actually all the prosecutor said is he would present his case to judges by then. Given the usual speed of ICC proceedings a trial even next year isn't likely.
There's also tonnes of misinformation in the piece, like suspects can interrogate witnesses. Imagine reading this as a potential witness.
Never the clearest speaker, one wonders if its the prosecutor who confused the reporters. Regardless, its up to the ICC's public information section to do its job - and ensure journalists get the right information, right from the beginning. Awful and inaccurate media coverage does no one any favours and has tripped up the court so often in the past.
Obviously he's doing no investigating at all - just the usual politicising. Investigating is the work of a separate team that comes from The Hague to assemble the ICC's case against those deemed most responsible for the killings there after the 2007 elections.
The merits of flying in small teams of investigators for short visits - and how effective this is in developing a solid case - can be debated at another time!
What's concerning me is the awful local media coverage of the prosector's visit. Consider this piece from Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper. The headline promises a December trial for the suspects when actually all the prosecutor said is he would present his case to judges by then. Given the usual speed of ICC proceedings a trial even next year isn't likely.
There's also tonnes of misinformation in the piece, like suspects can interrogate witnesses. Imagine reading this as a potential witness.
Never the clearest speaker, one wonders if its the prosecutor who confused the reporters. Regardless, its up to the ICC's public information section to do its job - and ensure journalists get the right information, right from the beginning. Awful and inaccurate media coverage does no one any favours and has tripped up the court so often in the past.
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