Browse content similar to 16/12/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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This is BBC World News Today. Appearing in public for the first | :00:14. | :00:20. | |
time in one-and-a-half years, the American soldier, Bradley Manning | :00:20. | :00:24. | |
and alleged WikiLeaks source, attends a military hearing. | :00:24. | :00:31. | |
Child sex abuse was rife in the Dutch Catholic Church, that's from | :00:31. | :00:34. | |
an inquiry. From the man who launched the Arab | :00:34. | :00:39. | |
Spring, to the protests which defined it. We look back on the | :00:39. | :00:42. | |
year. From basket case to vibrant economy. | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
On the 40th anniversary of its independence, we look at the making | :00:47. | :00:53. | |
and the future of modern Bangladesh. It's a highly integrated economy. | :00:53. | :01:00. | |
It's an integrated economy of 160 million people. That is a strength. | :01:00. | :01:06. | |
And the British journalist and author Christopher Hitchins dies, | :01:06. | :01:16. | |
:01:16. | :01:21. | ||
Hello and welcome. The US army private accused of supplying | :01:21. | :01:25. | |
hundreds of thousands of secret documents to the whistle blowing | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
website WikiLeaks is appearing for the first time before a military | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
court. Bradley Manning was an intelligence analyst in Iraq when | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
he allegedly accessed military files F convicted, he could be | :01:36. | :01:45. | |
sentenced to life in prison. A traitor deserving life | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
imprisonment for a reckless act of disloyalty or a vulnerable young | :01:50. | :01:55. | |
man performing a public service. Bradley Manning is charged with | :01:55. | :01:59. | |
knowingly giving intelligence to the enemy, through what the charge | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
sheet describes as "indirect means" in other words to Julian Assange | :02:03. | :02:10. | |
and WikiLeaks. As an intelligence analyst, he | :02:10. | :02:15. | |
stumbled across this video showing an American helicopter attack which | :02:15. | :02:18. | |
killed civilians and journalists. It became the first of his many | :02:18. | :02:24. | |
leaks and caused a sensation. This was the largest leak of classified | :02:24. | :02:28. | |
information in American history. A quarter of a million diplomatic | :02:28. | :02:33. | |
cables from American embassies over the world, and half a million | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
military records from Iraq and Afghanistan. The scope was breath | :02:37. | :02:40. | |
taking. Military tactics were revealed. Afghan informants were | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
named. Senior American diplomats were compromised. This, for many of | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
us, was the first glimpse of Bradley Manning since his arrest a | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
year-and-a-half ago. He sat in the courtroom, in uniform, his hands | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
collapsed in front of him. He said only that he understood his rights | :02:56. | :03:00. | |
and he identified the lawyers representing him. But who is the | :03:00. | :03:03. | |
man at the heart of this extraordinary story? Bradley | :03:03. | :03:08. | |
Manning was born in the Christian conservative heart land. He | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
rejected religion as a child. He joined the army but fell out with | :03:13. | :03:21. | |
colleagues and received counselling. Outside the military base here, | :03:21. | :03:25. | |
some of his supporters are holding a vigil throughout the hearing. | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
should be given the Medal ofpsHonour. He should be released. | :03:28. | :03:35. | |
We should continue to bring about a transformation of our government | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
where secrecy is not overused. to the organisation he served and | :03:39. | :03:43. | |
many other Americans, Bradley Manning seems distinctly less | :03:43. | :03:50. | |
heroic. He faces a probable life sentence if convicted. His defence | :03:50. | :03:57. | |
has questioned the impartiality of the court and asked what damage was | :03:57. | :04:00. | |
really done by the leaks. The hearing is likely to last several | :04:00. | :04:07. | |
days. The former US Assistant Secretary | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
of State for public affairs PJCrowley has been talking to the | :04:12. | :04:18. | |
BBC about the case. He resigned in March this year after publicly | :04:18. | :04:22. | |
criticised the Pentagon for allegedly mistreating Manning while | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
in detention. He says he does deserve to be on trial. The case is | :04:26. | :04:31. | |
now proceeding. I like the prosecuter's chances. I think when | :04:31. | :04:39. | |
you put it all together, from various reports, Bradley Manning | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
was involved in chat rooms. He's provided a lot of information to | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
the community of computer geeks that he was linked to. Obviously, | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
the government has a chance to go back through computer networks. | :04:54. | :04:58. | |
There are forensics to help with this case. I expect after this | :04:58. | :05:04. | |
article two -- article 32 hearing, there will be enough evidence to | :05:04. | :05:11. | |
proceed to trial. I think it's a necessary prosecution in order to | :05:11. | :05:16. | |
remind people within government that there, this information needs | :05:16. | :05:24. | |
to be protected. When it's compromised, there are consequences. | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
And understand WikiLeaks is different than leaks that we've had | :05:27. | :05:33. | |
in the past. We've had leaks before. One individual, a handful of | :05:33. | :05:37. | |
documents, one country. It causes a problem, but you work through it | :05:38. | :05:43. | |
over time. WikiLeaks was about 750,000 documents, many of them | :05:43. | :05:47. | |
classified. It touched on every relationship that the United States | :05:47. | :05:55. | |
had with every government around the world. And so its impact has | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
been much more profound than at any time in the past. I think this is a | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
vital prosecution. I'm a believer in this prosecution. The necessity | :06:05. | :06:11. | |
to protect information, even while, as a government, being accountable | :06:11. | :06:15. | |
and as transparent as possible. I thought that the treatment of | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
Bradley Manning was undercutting the legitimacy of this prosecution, | :06:19. | :06:23. | |
the credibility of this case. Thankfully, for a variety of | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
reasons, today's hearing, I believe will be about what Bradley Manning | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
is alleged to have done and not about how the government has | :06:31. | :06:37. | |
treated him while in detention. This afternoon it's emerged that | :06:37. | :06:45. | |
Julian Assange will have an appeal against his extradition to Sweden. | :06:45. | :06:49. | |
Mr Assange is wanted for questioning over allegations of | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
sexual assault. Charges he denies. The High Court had approved his | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
extradition in a previous reading. The Catholic Church has been any | :06:59. | :07:02. | |
intense scrutiny over child abuse allegations for several years. This | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
time it's focused on Holland. An independent inquiry estimates | :07:07. | :07:10. | |
between 10,000 and 20,000 children have been abused in the country | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
since the Second World War. It says church officials were aware of the | :07:14. | :07:18. | |
abuse and failed to do anything about it. The Archbishop of Utrecht | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
apologised and said he was ashamed of the findings. | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
The claims quickly escalated to reveal a network of abuse aacross - | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
- across the country. During this independent investigation they | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
found one in five children were abused while in the care of | :07:35. | :07:39. | |
Catholic institutions. Not only that, but Catholic officials knew | :07:39. | :07:43. | |
the abuse was happening, but did nothing to help the victims or stop | :07:43. | :07:48. | |
the people who were abused them. The commission estimates between | :07:48. | :07:56. | |
10,000 and 20,000 children were abused between 1945 and 2010. They | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
ID vied 800 priests, brothers and lay people working for the church, | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
named in the complaints. Of those 105 are stale live. Though it's not | :08:05. | :08:09. | |
known if they still have church positions. Earlier, the Catholic | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
Church took some responsibility for what happened. I feel ashamed and I | :08:15. | :08:22. | |
feel deeply touched and affected by what I have read in the report, it | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
is terrible. Yeah. The group representing the victims has called | :08:28. | :08:33. | |
for justice for all those affected. What really is important today is | :08:33. | :08:41. | |
what the next steps will be after the bishop's. They have post poned | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
their actions one-and-a-half year and from now there's no excuse to | :08:46. | :08:51. | |
postpone any steps towards the victim. Some payments have been | :08:51. | :08:57. | |
issued. Last month, the church set up a special compensation system to | :08:57. | :09:02. | |
award amounts of up to 130,000 dollars to the victims, depending | :09:02. | :09:06. | |
on the amount of abuse they have suffered. Now begins the painful | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
process of rebuilding the Catholic Church in the Netherlands and | :09:10. | :09:16. | |
beyond. As part of a separate investigation, | :09:16. | :09:22. | |
police have arrested more than 100 people across Europe for sharing | :09:22. | :09:29. | |
videos of the sexual abuse of children. The the European police | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
agency said the operation had shown how the internet was helping | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
offenders share images globally while protecting their identities. | :09:37. | :09:42. | |
In other news, ten people have been killed, several injured, in western | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
Kazakhstan. The clashes were between striking oil workers and | :09:45. | :09:50. | |
the police. The workers have been protesting for higher wages. The | :09:50. | :09:54. | |
country's prosecuter said the fighter was the result of mass | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
disorder. Japan's Fukushima nuclear power | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
plant has been stabilised, according to the Japanese | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
government. Three reactors went into meltdown following the tsunami | :10:03. | :10:07. | |
nine months ago. Now the Prime Minister says the plant has reached | :10:07. | :10:13. | |
what, he called, cold shutdown. The party of President Ouattara has | :10:13. | :10:18. | |
won the most seats in the Ivory Coast Parliamentary elections, | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
that's the first poll since Laurent Gbagbo's arrest. Mr Gbagbo refused | :10:23. | :10:27. | |
to accept defeat in last year's presidential election, sparking | :10:27. | :10:32. | |
five months of violent -- violence. A year ago this weekend, a 26-year- | :10:32. | :10:40. | |
old Tunisian set himself on fire. It was an extreme act by a young | :10:40. | :10:44. | |
man, who had reached the end of his tether after being banned from | :10:44. | :10:50. | |
selling fruit to make a living. It set off the remarkable events that | :10:50. | :10:57. | |
became known as the Arab Spring. It's been a year like no other in | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
the Middle East. Some rulers have gone, others survived, other | :11:02. | :11:08. | |
countries are in turmoil. It started in Tunisia. A year ago, | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
police stopped a young vendor from selling his fruit on the street. In | :11:12. | :11:17. | |
protest he set himself on fire, frustrated and furious at a corrupt, | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
all-powerful regime. Weeks later, he died. It touched a national | :11:21. | :11:26. | |
nerve. People came out and dared to denounce their government, defying | :11:26. | :11:32. | |
the riot police sent to confront them. Abruptly the President lost | :11:32. | :11:36. | |
control and fled, his regime suddenly over. The touch paper of | :11:36. | :11:44. | |
revolution had been lit. When it spret to Cairo people asked - could | :11:44. | :11:49. | |
Egypt be next? The ballooning population shared the frustrations, | :11:49. | :11:54. | |
power concentrated in the hands of an unelected elite, a brutal | :11:54. | :12:00. | |
security apparatus. We are tired. They shot. President Mubarak, in | :12:00. | :12:04. | |
power for over 28 years, had a huge security network. Word of the | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
protests spread on Facebook and Twitter. The army refused to open | :12:08. | :12:15. | |
fire. Mubarak fled with his family. In Libya, revolt began in the east, | :12:15. | :12:19. | |
a region rebellious against Colonel Gaddafi's rule. He called the | :12:19. | :12:23. | |
rebels rats and cockroaches and vowed to crush them. Vain and | :12:23. | :12:27. | |
dictatorial, he and his family lived in a world divorced from | :12:27. | :12:30. | |
reality. For months the Civil War looked like a stalemate, until | :12:30. | :12:35. | |
Western air power and help from Arab states drove Gaddafi's troops | :12:35. | :12:40. | |
back. His end came here, dragged out of a drainage pipe and shot by | :12:40. | :12:46. | |
his own people. In Yemen, popular protest against the 33-year ruler, | :12:46. | :12:52. | |
President Saleh has been complicated by tribal. The | :12:52. | :12:56. | |
President has remained -- decided to step down. | :12:56. | :13:00. | |
Bahrain has seen the most serious violence in the Gulf, around 40 | :13:00. | :13:04. | |
killed, thousands injured, as Shi'ites demand for rights from the | :13:04. | :13:09. | |
Sunni monarchy. There's so much tension in these Shi'ite villages | :13:09. | :13:13. | |
when processions like this meet the security forces, often it ends in | :13:13. | :13:18. | |
tear gas, more wounds and more animosity. Syria has suffered | :13:18. | :13:24. | |
terribly this year, over 5,000 killed, countless others tortured | :13:24. | :13:27. | |
as the country lurches towards Civil War, its President appears to | :13:27. | :13:31. | |
be in denial. Nofrpblgts government in the world kill its people unless, | :13:31. | :13:35. | |
it's led by crazy person. For me as President, I became President | :13:35. | :13:39. | |
because of the public support. The movement many called the Arab | :13:39. | :13:45. | |
awakening, has yet to run its course. What started a year ago | :13:45. | :13:50. | |
with a Tunisian fruit seller is now unstoppable. The Arab world has had | :13:50. | :13:55. | |
enough of dictatorship. In Egypt today, there have been | :13:55. | :13:59. | |
more clashs in Cairo between troops and protesters. Demonstrators had | :13:59. | :14:03. | |
been staging a sits-in outside the Parliament building, when security | :14:03. | :14:08. | |
forces moved in to remove them. The latest protests began three weeks | :14:08. | :14:16. | |
ago. 40 years ago today, after a two-week war with India, Pakistan | :14:17. | :14:20. | |
suffered a humiliating defeat, out of what had been east Pakistan, the | :14:20. | :14:25. | |
new country of Bangladesh was born. Many believed it had little chance | :14:25. | :14:29. | |
of surviving, despite natural disasters, military dictatorship | :14:30. | :14:34. | |
and an economy dependent on aid for many years, Bangladesh has not only | :14:34. | :14:44. | |
:14:44. | :14:45. | ||
survived, it's experienced strong Meet this young mother of two. She | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
is one of millions of women working in Bangladesh's thriving garment | :14:50. | :14:55. | |
industry. Today, Bangladesh is the world's third-biggest export of | :14:55. | :15:01. | |
Ready to wear clothes, earning billions of dollars in revenue. | :15:01. | :15:05. | |
life has changed completely after a got a job here. We lived in our | :15:05. | :15:09. | |
village and we have no money and we struggled to make ends meet. With | :15:09. | :15:13. | |
my savings, I bought a rickshaw for my husband and now he earns some | :15:13. | :15:22. | |
money. We are still poor, but we are no longer starving. | :15:22. | :15:26. | |
Bangladesh's first President makes a fiery speech at the start of the | :15:26. | :15:32. | |
independence struggle. The war left the country in ruins, but the | :15:32. | :15:35. | |
American National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger called it a basket | :15:35. | :15:39. | |
case. He thought the new country would constantly need millions of | :15:39. | :15:49. | |
:15:49. | :15:49. | ||
dollars in aid just to survive. said thank God it is not our basket | :15:49. | :15:55. | |
case. Our wish today is for a economy, but it is a highly | :15:55. | :16:00. | |
integrated economy. It is an integrated economy of 160 million | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
people. That is a strength. These children are dressed in the | :16:04. | :16:08. | |
national colours to celebrate Bangladesh Bols break from Pakistan | :16:08. | :16:15. | |
40 years ago. Since then, the country has refused independence on | :16:15. | :16:18. | |
foreign aid, and democracy has taken root after years of military | :16:18. | :16:23. | |
rule. The country has also witnessed a strong economic rise in | :16:23. | :16:27. | |
recent years, helping millions out of poverty. But, for a lot of | :16:27. | :16:36. | |
Bangladesh is, that is not enough. The biggest challenge is sharing in | :16:36. | :16:39. | |
the economy and we have brought down the number of poor people, but | :16:39. | :16:43. | |
it is still one third of the population. For these women, the | :16:43. | :16:47. | |
lively have also depends on what happens outside Bangladesh. The | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
current crisis in the Eurozone, the country's biggest export market, | :16:51. | :16:57. | |
could have a major impact. For 40 years, Bangladesh has defied the | :16:57. | :17:01. | |
dire predictions made in 1971. It has a bright -- survive. There are | :17:01. | :17:06. | |
uncertainties, but people are confident that their in-built | :17:06. | :17:16. | |
:17:16. | :17:18. | ||
resilience will keep them going. We have been hearing that the scars | :17:18. | :17:21. | |
of independence will remain and disagreements continue to the day. | :17:21. | :17:24. | |
The Bangladeshi government saw too many people killed, they called it | :17:24. | :17:30. | |
a genocide. The Pakistani side investigated through a commission | :17:30. | :17:33. | |
which was formed and eventually they said 26,000 people were killed. | :17:33. | :17:38. | |
You can see the difference between 26,003 million. My view is that it | :17:38. | :17:43. | |
is virtually impossible to verify the figure but the fact remains | :17:43. | :17:48. | |
that a lot of people were killed and there was mass rape and murder | :17:48. | :17:54. | |
and torture. For the were atrocities on both sides. Yes, both | :17:54. | :18:00. | |
sides. But the Bengali separatists and the Urdu-speaking community | :18:00. | :18:05. | |
were considered loyal to the idea of Pakistan but there was internal | :18:05. | :18:08. | |
strife as villages were burned and people were killed and that was a | :18:08. | :18:12. | |
justification for the Pakistan army to intervene. But this could not | :18:12. | :18:17. | |
have been done without the help of India. They were crucial to the | :18:17. | :18:21. | |
success of this war. I was brought up in Pakistan believing it was an | :18:21. | :18:26. | |
Indian conspiracy. When I went to Bangladesh last month and spoke to | :18:26. | :18:30. | |
senior ministers, they accepted that without the help from India we | :18:30. | :18:36. | |
could not have done it in 1971. you look at the map, it was bonkers | :18:36. | :18:41. | |
as far as West Pakistan was concerned. The territory divided by | :18:41. | :18:47. | |
1,600 kilometres, with a hostile enemy territory next. It was an | :18:47. | :18:51. | |
absurd idea to begin with in the minds of people, but people say it | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
was inevitable. And when the surrender came, a moment of | :18:55. | :19:00. | |
national humiliation for Pakistan. I believe it is possibly the | :19:00. | :19:04. | |
darkest period in the history of Pakistan. When 90,000 soldiers | :19:04. | :19:08. | |
surrender in front of India, being taken as prisoners of war, the | :19:08. | :19:14. | |
country then broke up. But that fed into the Pakistan paranoia with | :19:14. | :19:18. | |
India and it has continued to inform the policy since then. | :19:18. | :19:23. | |
Looking at Bangladesh now and its future, it is making big strides. | :19:23. | :19:27. | |
There are a lot of challenges in Bangladesh. Overall, Bangladesh has | :19:27. | :19:32. | |
done well since independence. They are making efforts and improving. | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
They are released in charge of their own destiny now. Before | :19:36. | :19:41. | |
independence there was constant blame on West Pakistan and that was | :19:41. | :19:45. | |
exploited in terms of economics and cultural subject -- subjugation, | :19:45. | :19:48. | |
but one would argue even know that the democracy there has problems, | :19:48. | :19:53. | |
one could argue that these people are in charge of their destiny. | :19:53. | :19:58. | |
that hatred slowly dissipating? Bangladesh, I did meet some people | :19:58. | :20:04. | |
and I felt the heat of this because I am Pakistani and Pakistanis | :20:04. | :20:07. | |
killed their relatives, but a lot of people have moved on. People | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
need closure. Officially, Bangladesh has repeatedly asked for | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
an apology from Pakistan and the leaders have expressed regret, but | :20:15. | :20:17. | |
there has not been an official apology yet. Many people in | :20:18. | :20:21. | |
Pakistan believe it is about time that they recognised the wrongs | :20:21. | :20:27. | |
that wouldn't. The controversial British born author and journalist | :20:27. | :20:30. | |
Christopher Hitchens has died at the age of 62. He passed away at a | :20:30. | :20:34. | |
hospital in Houston, Texas after a long battle against cancer. | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
Christopher Hitchens began his career in Britain as a left-wing | :20:37. | :20:40. | |
journalist, but he later moved to New York and to the political right. | :20:40. | :20:44. | |
The BBC's James Robbins looks back on his life. | :20:44. | :20:49. | |
Christopher Hitchens lived hard and fast and wrote even harder -- | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
faster. Being the right is what I am, he said, rather than what I do. | :20:53. | :20:58. | |
He started on the left at the New Statesman magazine in 19 some T3. | :20:58. | :21:02. | |
Methodical with facts, always a fierce critic, often hilarious. He | :21:02. | :21:08. | |
wrote to provoke, most of all as an ardent atheist. I refuse to be told | :21:08. | :21:16. | |
what to think or howl, let alone what to say, but most certainly not | :21:16. | :21:21. | |
by people who claimed the authority of fabricated works of primeval | :21:21. | :21:26. | |
myth and fiction. They want me to believe that they are divine, and | :21:26. | :21:29. | |
that I won't have. At and in debate with Tony Blair, Christopher | :21:29. | :21:34. | |
Hitchens told him that the leaders were slave to the celestial | :21:34. | :21:39. | |
dictatorship, a sort of divine North Korea. Christopher was a | :21:39. | :21:46. | |
total one-off. A unique character, an extraordinary polemicist, a | :21:46. | :21:54. | |
contrary in, often. But an incredible, inspirational writer | :21:54. | :21:58. | |
and figure. Christopher Hitchens revelled in fights and shows many | :21:58. | :22:05. | |
targets. He called Bill Clinton based cynical, C -- self-serving, | :22:05. | :22:10. | |
ambitious third. He scandalise many by accusing Mother Teresa of | :22:10. | :22:14. | |
withholding proper medical care in favour of a cult based on death, | :22:14. | :22:18. | |
suffering and subjection. But he was also fearless calling 9/11, the | :22:18. | :22:24. | |
work of Islamic fascism. I knew Christopher in the 60s and 70s. I | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
knew him better in the 90s, actually, when we worked together | :22:28. | :22:33. | |
on a number of documentaries. So why will have fond memories of that | :22:33. | :22:38. | |
Christopher -- I will have. But the new Christopher that emerged after | :22:38. | :22:42. | |
9/11, as an apologist for the United States and its imperial wars | :22:42. | :22:48. | |
and policies have brought, I had little sympathy for. Christopher | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
Hitchens's embrace of America and his support for George Bush ended | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
some friendships that won him new admirers as well. Then, as cancer | :22:56. | :23:01. | |
took hold, he started thinking and writing about dying, death, and a | :23:01. | :23:06. | |
certainty that it would be final. Do you fear death? No, I am not | :23:06. | :23:10. | |
afraid of being dead, necessarily. There is nothing to be afraid of, I | :23:10. | :23:15. | |
won't know. And if I find I am alive in any way a tall, that will | :23:15. | :23:24. | |
Christopher Hitchens who died at the age of 62. I'm joined now by | :23:24. | :23:28. | |
Jacob Weisberg, editor of Slate.com. The thing that struck me about | :23:28. | :23:32. | |
Christopher Hitchens was passion in everything he did and said. Is that | :23:32. | :23:40. | |
your experience as well? Very much so. He had the great passion for | :23:40. | :23:43. | |
whatever his view was at the time, even though it changed over the | :23:43. | :23:47. | |
years. But it wasn't just passion for the sake of it, it was for | :23:47. | :23:50. | |
things he cared about, a human rights, freedom of expression, | :23:50. | :23:53. | |
literature, leaving the kind of life he wanted to lead and for | :23:53. | :23:57. | |
having the freedom to do it. What did you first think when you first | :23:57. | :24:04. | |
met him? I met him 26 years ago when I was 21 years old and he made | :24:04. | :24:08. | |
quite an impression on me. I was taking a year of college and | :24:08. | :24:10. | |
working in Washington as a journalist and he had been there | :24:10. | :24:15. | |
are few more years having come over from London. And he sort of called | :24:15. | :24:19. | |
me out of the blue and asked if I wanted a cheap drink, and I had | :24:19. | :24:22. | |
heard of him and knew his reputation, and he really | :24:22. | :24:26. | |
befriended me, and what I subsequently learnt his day he had | :24:26. | :24:29. | |
done that with so many young journalists in a really selfless | :24:29. | :24:33. | |
and admirable way. He just cultivated this kind of | :24:33. | :24:39. | |
conversation around him and he didn't have disciples, and he | :24:39. | :24:42. | |
didn't like them, but he surrounded himself with a range of people who | :24:42. | :24:46. | |
didn't necessarily share his views or taste but who he got some | :24:46. | :24:50. | |
stimulation from. And he could drink, couldn't he? It was | :24:50. | :24:53. | |
unbelievable. The thing was not how much he drank, but how little | :24:53. | :24:57. | |
effect it had on him. The worst hangover remember having in my life | :24:57. | :25:00. | |
was after one night I went out with him early on and I learned my | :25:00. | :25:04. | |
lesson, but he would drink and drink and at the end of the evening | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
he might feel a little muzzy but basically entirely coherent, and he | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
could sit down and banged out a column that would be better than | :25:11. | :25:15. | |
anything I could do stone-cold sober. He had so many feuds, many | :25:15. | :25:21. | |
of them very entertaining. One less so was with his brother, Peter. | :25:21. | :25:26. | |
Today he wrote about the one quality that stood out in his | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
brother, which was courage. What do you think of that? I think that is | :25:31. | :25:35. | |
the right thing to pick up on, intellectual courage. The more time | :25:35. | :25:40. | |
I have spent in journalism, the more I have felt that the press | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
have a herd mentality existing, especially amongst journalists in | :25:44. | :25:49. | |
some ways. It was simply never true of Christopher. He followed his | :25:49. | :25:54. | |
principles to the logical conclusion and he did not care what | :25:54. | :26:04. | |
anyone thought. From Trotskyite took me a conservative, that is | :26:04. | :26:09. | |
quite a ride. -- to a neo- conservative. I don't think he was | :26:09. | :26:14. | |
a conventional liberal in the American sense, but he did have a | :26:14. | :26:16. | |
larger Liberal values through his life and he was liberationists. He | :26:16. | :26:19. | |
believed people should be free and should be free to express | :26:20. | :26:23. | |
themselves. He didn't think they should live under dictatorships. He | :26:23. | :26:27. | |
thought they should be free to express themselves sexually, to | :26:27. | :26:33. | |
drink, to smoke, to dress the way they want, and there is a | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
consistent thread in his thoughts that go from his period on the left | :26:36. | :26:40. | |
to his period on the right, but looked at in a certain perspective, | :26:40. | :26:44. | |
even his period on the right was not really on the right. He | :26:44. | :26:47. | |
supported the Iraq war. His reasons were different from other | :26:47. | :26:52. | |
supporters. Jacob, thank you for speaking to us. That is all for me | :26:52. | :27:02. | |
:27:02. | :27:03. | ||
Hello, we have a cold weekend ahead. Frosty, I see, and wintry showers. | :27:03. | :27:07. | |
We saw an area of low pressure moving through the Channel which | :27:07. | :27:11. | |
skipped away into Germany and now with strong winds we are left | :27:11. | :27:16. | |
behind with a cold north-west airflow across the UK, which is why | :27:16. | :27:18. | |
temperatures are struggling this weekend. There will be problems | :27:18. | :27:23. | |
with ice and there will be cold accentuated by the north-westerly | :27:23. | :27:29. | |
wind. An RAC start to Saturday and further wintry showers. -- a cold | :27:29. | :27:32. | |
start to Saturday. Shell was running along the southern counties, | :27:32. | :27:37. | |
showers of rain, sleet, snow, hail and also some sunshine across many | :27:37. | :27:41. | |
inland areas with a mixture of patchy cloud and sunny spells and | :27:41. | :27:43. | |
if you get sunshine it doesn't make much difference to the temperature. | :27:43. | :27:48. | |
It is well below the seasonal average and into single figures. | :27:48. | :27:51. | |
The showers coming into the south- west are predominantly rain but you | :27:52. | :27:56. | |
could catch Hale. Those across Wales are snow on high ground but | :27:56. | :28:00. | |
it will not be a constant spell of wet weather because they will be | :28:00. | :28:04. | |
dry and occasionally bright interludes. Further scattered | :28:04. | :28:06. | |
showers keeps coming in through Northern Ireland in temperatures | :28:06. | :28:11. | |
around four or five or six degrees, held close to freezing across | :28:11. | :28:15. |