The BBC pits six lawyers against one questioning blogger, Tony Newbery of Harmless Sky, who was making an FOI request for the 28 names. In the process, the judge demonstrates he has partisan views on climate change.
Via Dr. Benny Peiser at The GWPF
As expected, the BBC has won its legal battle against blogger Tony Newbery. Newbery wanted the list of “scientific experts” who attended a BBC seminar at which, according to the BBC Trust, they convinced the broadcaster to abandon impartiality and take a firmly warmist position when reporting climate change.
When the Beeb refused to divulge who these people were and who they worked for, Newbery took the corporation to an information tribunal. Now the names and affiliations of the 28 people who decided the Beeb climate stance – acknowledged by the Corporation to include various non-scientists such as NGO people, activists etc – will remain a secret.
…
The other lay judge, former Haringey councillor Narendra Makanji, appears to have strong views on climate-change skeptics, as he tweeted here this year: “Michael Hintze who dines at no 10 is backer of Global Warming Policy Foundation, climate change deniers fronted by Nigel Lawson.” We asked the Information Commissioner’s Office how a lay judge with such partisan views on climate change came to oversee hearings so closely coupled to the subject of climate. Campaigning lay judges would not normally be appointed to sit on such a case, a spokesman noted, and concerns would be legitimate grounds for appeal.
–Andrew Orlowski, The Register, 9 November 2012
Newbery writes about the affair:
Harmless Sky in court – a fair hearing?
Andrew Orlowski of The Register has written a very accurate and fair account of happenings at the Central London Civil Justice Centre last Monday. This was the first day’s hearing of my appeal against the Information Commissioner’s decision that the BBC were correct to refuse a request for the names of the ‘best scientific experts’ who attended their seminar entitled ‘Climate Change – the Challenge to Broadcasting’ in January 2006. This expert advice was cited on page 40 of the BBC Trust’s excellent report ‘From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel: Safeguarding Impartiality in the 21st Century’ as the authority for a very important editorial decision.
I’ve written about this very strange seminar here and many other times at Harmless Sky.
==============================================================
Bishop Hill writes:
Tony Newbery has lost his FOI claim for the details of the attendees at the BBC’s climate change seminar. The decision was issued in an extraordinarily short period of ten days (it normally takes four weeks).
Andrew Montford has written a 26-page guide to the seminar saga, and the subsequent Freedom of information battle: you can buy it in ebook format here for ~75 cents.
Footnote: Given that the BBC is publicly funded, and has denied public disclosure of the information which by law should be public, this list of 28 won’t likely stay secret very long. In every organization, there’s usually a few people with a conscience. As we’ve seen in Climategate, it only takes one. – Anthony
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Dodgy Geezer:
Thankyou for the list from Maurizio which you provide at November 12, 2012 at 3:29 pm in the link
http://omnologos.com/full-list-of-participants-to-the-bbc-cmep-seminar-on-26-january-2006/
I have a question:
These participants are listed among “Specialists:”
Blake Lee-Harwood, Head of Campaigns, Greenpeace
Trevor Evans, US Embassy
Anuradha Vittachi, Director, Oneworld.net
Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation
Claire Foster, Church of England
Saleemul Huq, IIED
Li Moxuan, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace China
Tadesse Dadi, Tearfund Ethiopia
Ashok Sinha, Stop Climate Chaos
Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director, Tearfund
Anita Neville, E3G
Tessa Tennant, Chair, AsRia
Why?
Richard
richardscourtney says:
November 12, 2012 at 3:49 pm
“Why?”
Because they live and breath CO2.
Hey ho, the Auntie’s dead.
@richardscourtney “Specialists:”
Blake Lee-Harwood, Head of Campaigns, Greenpeace – Specialist in creating scares to obtain funds
Trevor Evans, US Embassy – Specialist ‘inside man’ ensuring problem-free distribution of funds
Anuradha Vittachi, Director, Oneworld.net – Specialist in spending said funds
Andrew Simms, Policy Director, New Economics Foundation- Specialist in spending said funds
Claire Foster, Church of England – Specialist in Hell-fire, which will engulf all those who do not mend their ways…
Saleemul Huq, IIED- Specialist in living off said funds
Li Moxuan, Climate campaigner, Greenpeace China- Specialist in living off said funds
Tadesse Dadi, Tearfund Ethiopia- Specialist in living off said funds
Ashok Sinha, Stop Climate Chaos- Specialist in living off said funds
Andy Atkins, Advocacy Director, Tearfund- Specialist in living off said funds
Anita Neville, E3G- Specialist in living off said funds
Tessa Tennant, Chair, AsRia- Specialist in living off said funds
You will note that there are many more specialists in spending these funds than there are obtaining them. This is because the amount obtained is so large that it takes about 10 people to spend the finds that one person can obtain. Look how hard they are working for/with this money…
Reblogged this on Climate Ponderings and commented:
BBC TwentyEightDate
Quote from Daily Telegraph – Delinpole:
One of those in attendance, conservative commentator Richard D North, has gone public with his take on the event:
‘I found the seminar frankly shocking, The BBC crew (senior executives from every branch of the Corporation) were matched by a equal number of specialists, almost all (and maybe all) of whom could be said to have come from the ‘we must support Kyoto’ school of climate change activists… I was frankly appalled by the level of ignorance of the issue which the BBC people showed.,I mean that I heard nothing which made me think any of them read any broadsheet newspaper coverage of the topic (except maybe the Guardian and that lazily).
‘Though they purported to be aware that this was an immensely important topic, it seemed to me that none of them had shown even a modicum of professional curiosity on the subject … I spent the day discussing the subject and I don’t recall anyone showing any sign of having read anything serious at all. I argued at the seminar that I thought most broadcasting coverage on climate change was awful. But I also said there was no need for them to become self-conscious about it, This was because, although the issues were scientifically, politically and economically difficult, the BBC’s reporting of the thing would improve as soon as their audience was asked to vote or pay for climate change policy.’
Repeat this is NOT Richard North of EUReferendum.com
The only name that rang a bell was Roger Harrabin. Why would anyone in Oxfam be taken seriously in matters of “Climate Science”? No wonder the BBC wanted to prevent the public from knowing how undistinguished their “Experts” are.
My heart sank seeing that Cambridge university was a major player, especially when I saw this:
“Linda Yueh, Fellow in Economics, Pembroke College”
Linda works at Pembroke College, Oxford. The real Pembroke College was founded in Cambridge in 1347 by Mary Valence, Duchess of Pembroke. More than six hundred years before “Women’s Lib” there were amazing women doing remarkable things. Every five years my name comes up for the “Foundress’ Feast”. Even though it is a long way from Florida to the other UEA (University of East Anglia) I make the trip.
The present “Master” of Pembroke College (Cambidge) is Sir Richard Dearlove who used to be “M” at MI6. Another “Master” was Nicholas Ridley, burned at the stake in 1555. Even though the college is tiny (~600 students) it can boast a chapel designed by Christopher Wren and alumni such as Edmund Spenser, William Pitt (the younger), G.G. Stokes, Tom Sharpe, Willliam Sulston (Nobel laureate), Roger Williams (founder of Rhode island) and Ray Dolby (Dolby Digital Audio). Recent alumni include some of the funniest people of recent memory, including Peter Cook, Eric Idle, Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_College,_Cambridge
The lawn you see in the top right photo is for the amazingly cut throat game called “Croquet”. There is a much larger lawn for Elizabethan “Bowls” but that is reserved for the faculty. My room was on the ground floor of “R” staircase on the left side of the photo. Back then (1958) there was no central heating or hot water so it got pretty chilly in the winter.
There is a link between the Savile affair, the Newsnight controversy, big pay offs to failed managers, and the BBC taking an overtly partial position on climate change – and that is “trust”. The BBC as many have said is a unique publically funded non-profit institution that depends entirely for its survival on UK tax-payers agreeing each year to buy a licence. If they stop then the BBC folds. As one of those licence fee payers I feel that on the issue of AGW the BBC has taken a political position, it is one that I disagree with and I was not in any way consulted. The process by which the decision to adopt the IPCC position on all matters relating to the climate was opaque. For me this raises doubts in my mind that I can trust the BBC on important matters.
Christohper.
Try doing away with your TV and thereby not needing to “agree” to buying a licence. You will find that the BBC then become worse to deal with than the Taliban.