Editorial: ‘Fearless’ Journalism? truthout.org Pulls Camp Ashraf Article Without Explanation/Response
Last week, truthout.org pulled an article I wrote. It was cited and thoroughly researched over a five-week period on the Siege of Baghdad’s Refugee Camp Ashraf. It was pulled with a terse note from the commissioning editor saying they will commission no more articles. While that is always any publication’s prerogative, no one in their Administration or editorial staff replied to multiple requests to clarify why the article was pulled. The only reason given from Commissioning Editor, Leslie Thatcher was they were unaware of ties between Camp Ashraf and the MEK.
That is an untrue representation and I am prepared to publish the more than 20 e-mails and transcripts of notes from our two phone calls that were exchanged on this article. Attached with the submission of the 1st draft was an archive of articles from Time Magazine, Foreign Policy Magazine and others showing the charges and their debunking. I was aware of and had concerns having seen multiple stories from many points of view.
The Middle East is all about raw emotion and generations of anger. Because it exists one must, of course, use caution in any story. That does not though forgive doing nothing and caving to the first sign of emotion.
Prior to publication, the article underwent dozens of changes to reflect the fast moving nature of the story and changes on the ground. It could not be published earlier because of truthout holiday staff shortages and I was repeatedly told everyone was very enthusiastic about the story and they especially held it until the Monday to ensure a broader audience.
No one is served by an inaccurate article. As an independent freelance journalist and editor of UK Progressive Magazine, I stand by both pieces having attended House of Lords Parliamentary meetings in London condemning the treatment of Camp refugees and interviewed more than 2 dozen people between 15 November and 27 December when the story first ran. This was certainly not done for the meagre commission, rather a genuine pursuit of more of the story.
Refugee Camp Ashraf is a perfect storm. The real issue is the complex Middle East environment. It stirs passion on all sides. No one involved on any side of this dispute would be mistaken as a candidate for Eagle Scout. The UN spreads whispers when someone is critical of their dereliction of duty. The Iranian government is expert at disinformation. The Nouri al-Maliki government in Iraq hangs on to a fragile peace between Sunni and Shiite and the coalition has its own disinformation team to heat things up.
The MEK and NCRI have a past and are hardly blameless in expressing their righteous indignation. All are pushing for political advantage and the story is the humanitarian suffering inside the camp. There is little sympathy though because too many have vested regional interests. Even Mother Theresa herself would have a hard time getting a point across in this part of the world.
What on earth were truthout expecting, the story would be “greeted in the streets as liberators.” It is a hot topic, well reported and brought out into the open without resorting to WikiLeaks “journalism.”
Precisely because it is hot does not forgive journalists for failing to try to tell the story or shying away because it is too difficult. It also does not forgive censorship by a “fearless” news organisation. If anything, it demands that they ensure all sides are heard and their very intelligent readership make their own decisions rather than being swayed by the number of comments and their ferocity. Come out in support of the refugees and there is chorus of commentators who shoot the entire article down. Come out in support of any government and the refugees scream. Each side tries to push its advantage and ‘truth’ is often stretched for political gain.
Wow, what a shocking disclosure. One need only look at the US Tea Party RW on issues like Climate Change, Birthers and Death Panels, to name but a few, to see daily, if not hourly, message shape-shifting.
As a journalist, I looked at all sides of this issue and made determinations based on balancing facts with that little used commodity in media today, common sense. Is what I am hearing making sense? Can I republish it? Do I have a second confirming source beyond the group pushing the argument? If the answer to all three is yes, I move forward.
Everyone was pushing an agenda. I also know that the UK and EU Parliament have much more to lose than gain backing resolutions and fighting on behalf of the camp’s residents. I consulted with my truthout editor and together we took decisions. Indeed I was urged by this editor to immediately release the follow-up story about the attack so they could pick up the URL and run it and instead chose to wait a further 24-hours becauseof exhaustion and wanting to get all known information.
My replies to her were always factual and unequivocal:
1. This editor was told of the entire situation and indeed the Giuliani delegation visit to Paris and Boxing Day hospital attack caused the story to undergo several late revisions before publication as new information became available. I even called back one revision when it was learned NCRI/PMOI President-Elect Rajavi ADDRESSED the Giuliani meeting with the MEK and ALL other refugee groups,
2. I was alerted early in the process to Iranian government disinformation campaigns and included links to negative stories about NCRI/PMOI President-Elect Rajavi in my 1st draft to that editor clearly stating that they had, in my opinion, been debunked, yet I wanted to get it right and for truthout to know there was another side.
3. The evidence beyond the NCRI releases and interviews was massive. Both the UK and EU Parliaments strongly condemned the atrocities through resolutions and political pressure, a high level US delegation met with MEK, NCRI, PMOI and other refugee groups and Amnesty International also condemned the actions in the Camp with their resources and reporting. I thoroughly parsed all NCRI information because it always came from a very strong point of view and was filled with biased and loaded language. I sorted through what was verifiable and printable and did not even mention the Boxing Day Hospital attack as anything but ‘alleged’ until statements were issued later that same day from both the UK and EU parliament leaders most closely associated with Camp Ashraf. I told the editor that the attack was verified and later had video sent of the raw footage of the attack.
4. The Iranian government does not take dissent lightly and has a long history of disinformation campaigns. There is also a dynamic within the US government on the one hand removing the MEK from the list of terrorist organisations, supporting the uprising against the fraudulent Iranian Presidential election of 2009 and a high level US delegation went to Paris. However, no one wishes to take responsibility or real action for fear of upsetting the balance of power in the region. So let the disinformation begin?
This journalist pays the price for diving in and writing a balanced story when the Iranian government would not offer comment. Fine. Again, that is truthout’s prerogative. And it does all professional journalists a disservice to know their truthout editor(s) will just as quickly throw them under the bus to cover their own backside because a story gets too hot to handle.
Text of the truthout e-mail:
“Yes we did (receive your URL link). We’ve taken down your Truthout story and will not be publishing others: we needed to be upfront with our readers about the MEK ties to Camp Ashraf which were not acknowledged. I could certainly have done more research here, but relied on your response to my direct question about that and sketchy history of the camp’s origins.I wish you all the best,”
How could this truthout editor not know of MEK (again, removed from the terrorist organisation list) ties? With 3,400 residents in the Camp, many for some for 25 years since the fall of the Shah, were truthout naïve enough to think all residents held hands and sung Kumbaya together each night? Attacked by both sides (Iran and Iraq) would anyone expect them to just quietly sit and take criticism? Could one not reasonably anticipate a disinformation Iranian government, UN or coalition response? More importantly, in light of the continuing Glenn Greenwald/Salon conflict over WikiLeaks logs, why are progressive sites attacking journalists and each other vs. the incoming Tea Party and its dangerous agenda?
truthout clearly got pressured politically on the story but from where and whom is unknown. This though is the point of a free and independent press. You go with stories that are uncomfortable if you trust the writer. I had done nothing to harm that trust and indeed my past truthout articles had 65-85,000 hits thus increasing the number of people exposed to important topics such as election machine controversies in Arizona and the Tea Party. I write for many publications and indeed this was the 6th article commissioned by truthout this year (2010). Throughout I was encouraged by the truthout commissioning editor.
This unexplained personal attack on work that took a month to create is strange. With so many attacks on an independent free press, why would truthout, of all organisations fold? Their motto is ‘fearless’ journalism… this seems anything but.
Denis G. Campbell
Editor-in-Chief
UK Progressive Magazine
The Monday Line returns next week.
Denis G Campbell is the author of 6 books including 'Billionaire Boys Election Freak Show,' 'The Vagina Wars' & 'Egypt Unsh@ckled.' He is the editor of UK Progressive Magazine and provides commentary to the BBC, itv Al Jazeera English, CNN, MSNBC and others. His weekly 'World View with Denis Campbell' segment can be heard every Thursday on the globally syndicated The David Pakman Show. You can follow him on Twitter via @UKProgressive and on Facebook.
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It is sad, indeed, to think that independent, progressive news organizations will ‘eat their own’ to save their skin. Have we learned nothing in the years since Watergate? Years which have given us an increasingly savvy and independent political view of the chaos that is the world we live in today? I, for one, am sorry to have recently donated to Truthout. I did so for one reason and one reason only: your article onn Camp Ashraf!
Denis Campbell is an independent journalist who is committed to the ethics and standards of journalism. By removing his article from the Truthout one could only conclude that Denis is paying the price for standing up for the truth and the ethical values of impartiality and accuracy of independent journalism.
I wish there were more likes of Denis Campbell who would not give in to those for whom these ethics have no meaning in practice. Denis Campbell had spent hours investigating the facts about the humanitarian crisis in Camp Ashraf. The removal of his thorough article by the editor of Truthout is nothing but censorship in 21 century Europe.
Well done Denis! Continue standing up for the truth!
“If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?” – William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice.
It is a sad fact of life that people, once demonised, are rarely ‘rehabilitated’ – irrespective of subsequent changes or understanding of the wider context in which they operated.
When I first covered the Ashraf story in September 2009 UK Progressive was the only media outlet willing to use my material or run the story. Time and again I recounted it to friends and media colleagues who seemed equally perplexed by the lack of exposure it was getting. One by one they came back to me with the ‘explanation’ that the MEK/PMOI were ‘terrorist’ organisations.
I wrote then: “3, 400 Iranian refugees (including 1,000 women), members of the PMOI (People’s Mujahedeen of Iran), who oppose the fundamentalist regime in Teheran, have lived in Ashraf for the last 20 years. In a desert area some 60 km north of Baghdad, they built themselves a city where equal rights, justice and democracy flourished, and where the excellent health and education services were made also available to the surrounding Iraqi population. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003, the PMOI disarmed, and, following an investigation by the UN in which every single resident was individually interrogated, the people of Ashraf were accorded “protected person” status under Geneva Convention IV.
In the meantime, PMOI members in Iran have been systematically hunted down, tortured and killed although there is ample evidence that as a body, the PMOI have renounced violence, so there are well-grounded fears that if anyone in Ashraf was forced to return, his or her fate would be sealed.
The “terror-tag” was formerly lifted from the PMOI last year, the ruling of the POAC (Proscribed Organisation Appeal Commission) confirmed by the Court of Appeal throwing out our Home Secretary’s appeal against their verdict as “capricious and speculative”. But do David Miliband and Barak Obama still want to regard the PMOI as terrorists in order to “appease” Iran?” (www.glynstrong.blogspot.com )
Since then the acts of violence and human rights abuses against Ashraf’s citizens have increased. All that they feared and predicted has come true.
I would like to make three points:
- There is evidence that abuses have taken place.
- It is on record that the MEK/PMOI have had their ‘terrorist’ status revoked
- Even if they had NOT, the treatment they have received would be inhumane and criminal – or like Shylock’s, are their appeals on the grounds of basic humanity simply ‘inconvenient truths’?
I have read Denis Campbell’s coverage with anger and admiration – but nothing has disappointed me as much as the position taken by http://www.truthout.org. A black day for free speech, integrity and independent journalism.
Glyn Strong
The Iranian regime spends hundreds of millions of dollars in spreading false information about the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) and their 3,500 members in Camp Ashraf. The Iranian intelligence ministry is well organised in their misinformation campaign against the opposition and any paper or journalist who dares to cover the truth about the atrocities of this regime and its agents in Iraq. Denis Campbell is now a victim of this dirty campaign.
Denis I support you fully.
Very Well Done!
Why is it that the Iranian regime is so afraid of Camp Ashraf and any news getting out regarding the suppression of the residents of the camp? Because the people in Camp Ashraf represent the real threat to the totality of the regime in Iran. In Iraq, they have now become an antithesis against spread of Islamic fundamentalism.
When the Iranian people come to the streets in millions and cry for freedom, democracy and regime change, the continuation of the policy of appeasement by our western leaders and by Obama administration is indeed shameful. More shameful than that is the way the Iranian regime’s lobbies attack any body who exposes their crimes in the media. I am also aware that Iran spends millions of pounds recruiting agents to infiltrate the media, NGOs, humanitarian and political organisations and groups, universities, charities and every other possible place in order to change the views of policy makers in the west.
I am totally with Denis Campbell and the removal of his article is indeed disgraceful.
Mr Campbell,
Unfortunately I feel that the truthout.org editors have been pressurised by the Iranian regime and its proxies to withdraw you well argued and well written article. I read the first article and could see that the regimes stooges had come out in force once again making wild accusations against the PMOI.
It is very unfortunate that truthout have done nothing but prevent the truth from getting out and I really hope they reconsider their position. It is very unfortunate that a brutal dictatorship can not only be allowed to attack Iranian refugees living on foreign soil but then to be given the opportunity to gag the West’s media when it comes to inform the public about these attacks is a indeed a travesty.
I applaud you for standing by your article and writing this rebuttal. History has shown us that those who speak the truth have been shot down, although the truth has always prevailed. To stand by what you believe in requires you to have a backbone in this day and age. I can tell you even though your article may have been withdrawn but your support amongst those who seek the truth has increased for you are a true human being. Thanks for the initial news piece and for this response. With best wishes to you in the New Year and with hope of peace and democracy in Iran and across the world.
Azadeh Hosseini, London
Please continue writing about the group and their suffering. I am not a MEK member or a remote supporter of the group. However, I deeply believe in human rights. 3400 people will be slaughtered if the world leaders don’t step up and help rescue this group from the barbaric government of Iran. God help them.
Yes, it is absolutely right, the mullahs are spending lot of money for their lobby in the west, they have many sources in our countries, and they have Press TV, sat channel and nonstop funds from Iran’s oil income. The only way to stop them is resistance.
Helping to stop mullah’s lobby, always targeted, thank you Mr Cambell for your courageous responsibility as a journalist.
I have just sent an email to the Editors of truthout along the lines set out below. I very much mean what I say in the last paragraph.
“You should be ashamed of pulling the article written by Denis Campbell about Camp Ashraf in Iraq. The inhumane treatment and killing of the residents of Camp Ashraf by Iraqi forces at the direction of Nouri al-Maliki has been condemned the world over. From the UN, to Amnesty International, religious leaders such as Desmond Tutu, Parliamentarians and lawyers across the world have condemned the flagrant breaches of international humanitarian law.
Yet, you have seen it fit to bow to the demands of the Iranian regime and those who directly or indirectly pursue its agenda.
In fact, your sensorship of this piece and your attempts to prevent the story from being told are actions of which the Iranian regime would strongly approve. Sensorship and suppression of dissent is a daily activity for the Iranian regime. However, I must say that I would not have expected similar actions from thruthout.
I congratulate Denis Campbell for sticking to his principles and having the courage to deal with the issue of Camp Ashraf regardless of how politically sensitive the issue might be.
Yours faithfully,
Masoud Zabeti”
Well done Mr Campbell for taking the time to research and write your article about Camp Ashraf. It is a shocking story of brutality against a population (which includes 1,000 women) simply because of their political beliefs, which they are not prepared to surrender. Those political beliefs are opposition to the totality of the vile regime in Iran and a strong belief in freedom, democracy, equlity and the rule of law.
To put it in simple language, the decison of thruthout to remove your article stinks. Please continue to expose the injustices in Camp Ashraf and the misinformation of the Iranian regime.
Mr Campbell, I read your editorial “Editorial: ‘Fearless’ Journalism? truthout.org Pulls Camp Ashraf Article Without Explanation/Response” and also your article about Ashraf which was published for a short time on Truthout website.
First I must say that your article about Ashraf supersede in quality, integrity and Journalistic professionalism any article I have ever read about Ashraf and Iranian opposition. And Truthout.org should consider it an honor that you allowed them to publish it. Your article about Ashraf gave Truthout.org a credibility that they might not have had before.
But it seems that publishing a well researched and highly credible article was a shock to their system. We live in a very cynical world where the truth is hidden under piles of inaccurate descriptions, false pretences, sheer fabrications, misinformation and damnn right censorship. But it takes a very courageous, honest truth seeking journalist like you with bags of integrity to dig the truth out no matter how well it hides itself. And for that I congratulate you and hold you in very high respect. I assure you that millions of Iranians inside and outside Iran feel exactly like me.
I am sure you will not be surprised to know that what Truthout.org has done has many precedence in history. One might like to remind Truthout.org that during Hitler fascist Nazi regime some newspapers in UK and other western countries would not publish any article by journalists criticising Hitler because they wanted to appease it.
Needless to say, Mr Campbell, that I fully support you and have sent an strong worded e.mail to Truthout.org heavily criticising them for their cowardly stance. Allowing a regime 6000 miles away to dictate to them what they can or can not publish is a shameful act of self-defeat, specially when Iranian men women and children pour out to streets risking their life to oppose and protest against that murderous, fascist regime.
Thank you very much Mr Campbell for your honesty and integrity. Journalists like you, though few and far between, are credit to the proffession of journalism and will always be remembered by the people who matter: the public.
Dear Mr Campbell, I sent the folloing letter to Truthout editors. I though it is fitting to post it here:
To the Editors of Truthout.org, particularly MS Leslie Thatcher,
I am writing this letter to strongly object to the removal of article “The Siege of Camp Ashraf, Iraq”, produced by UK Progressive, from your web site. It was a disgraceful act of cowardliness and shameful act of appeasement of a fascist terrorist regime ruling Iran.
It is an absolute disgrace to allow a fundamentalist, fascist regime of mullahs, 6000 miles away, whose bombs in Iraq are responsible for the death and murder of many coalition forces, particularly American forces, to dictate to you (truthout.org) what you can or cannot publish. Especially since you are a website based in USA, whose citizens, after Iranian people, have suffered at the hands of this regime more than the citizens of any other country.
It is also a disgrace that Ms Thatcher, the commissioning editor, make a blatant false excuse of “they were unaware of ties between Camp Ashraf and the MEK”. This is a blatant lie only befitting of the officials of the regime of mullahs in Iran.
I am sure Ms Thatcher and other commissioning officials of Truthout.org were well aware that most of the 3400 residents of Ashraf are members of MEK (Mujahedin-e-Khalq, or PMOI: People’s Mujahedin organisation of Iran).
No doubt Ms Tatcher and other officials or editors of Truthout.org are quite aware of this fact that following the invasion of Iraq anq subsequent disarming of Ashraf residents, 6 US agencies in Iraq, namely: NSA, CIA, FBI, D.o.D, State Department officials and Pentagon, screened every member of MEK residents in Ashraf for a period of 16 months, after which USA officially announced status of all the residents of Ashraf “Protected Persons Status” under 4th Geneva Convention. And it was announced through media.
Therefore this was a sheer lie of an excuse that Ms Thatcher has given as a sole reason for pulling the article. Isn’t it ironic that any person, entity or government appeasing the murderous fascist regime of mullahs in Iran immediately after the act of appeasement picks up the regime’s disgusting habits of lying and fabricating? I wonder!!!
We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard. ~Voltaire, Dictionnaire Philosophique, 1764
Denis G. Campbell has paid a price that no man/woman should pay for integrity and correctness. Censorship offends me it offends our whole society!.