Don't mention the war (or the offside rule)!

24 Jan 11 | Uncategorized

What do Jon Gaunt and Stephen Fry have in common?

At first glance, nothing. But both have got in trouble for utterly innocuous references to World War II.

The BBC has apologised to the Japanese Embassy after a joke on Fry’s QI show about Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a Japanese man who managed to be a victim of both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings (he survived both). Fry quipped that Yamaguchi was the unluckiest man on Earth. The Japanese Embassy in London wrote to the BBC, pointing out that they felt the joke was in poor taste. The BBC duly said sorry.

Meanwhile, radio phone-in host Jon Gaunt has won the right to appeal a court decision against him after he was dismissed for calling a councillor a “health Nazi” on air. Gaunt lost his original case for unfair dismissal after a court found his comment to be “offensive and abusive”, with “no factual content or justification”.

Normally, I’d say that it’s important that people have the right to be offensive. But there’s something about these stories that I find baffling: I just don’t think either of these comments are actually that offensive. I don’t think Fry’s case warrants a complaint from Japanese diplomats, and I really don’t think that Gaunt’s comment warranted a dismissal.

Yamaguchi was pretty unlucky, wasn’t he? And the councillor on Gaunt’s show was being a bit of a health Nazi in saying that smokers shouldn’t be allowed to adopt children.

Have the events of World War II now become so hallowed that we can’t even loosely base any joke or barb on them?

Meanwhile, in stuff-that-is-a-bit-offensive news, Sky Sports football presenters Andy Gray and Richard Keys have been suspended from duty (for one night, admittedly), after some off-colour comments about a female linesman and the offside rule. The two men were caught off guard commenting on Sian Massey’s decision to allow play to continue in the build up to Liverpool’s first goal in their game against Wolves yesterday, trotting out that pub dullard convention about women not understanding the offside rule. Gray and Keys have apologised to Massey, and TV replays have shown she was right in her decision. Which suggests at least one woman understands the offside rule better than Andy Gray.

China: earthquakes unearths tensions

19 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized

According to Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun the Chinese Central Propaganda Department has issued guidelines on reporting of the Qinghai earthquake disaster. All internal news items circulated within mainland China are to be approved by state officials before publishing, and can only focus on positive aspects of the relief effort.

Western media has already been more critical, focussing on aspects such as the unrecognised efforts of the 200 Tibetan monks who were banned from accessing certain areas of the city, instead concentrating on helping the rural population whose houses suffered the most damage. Other aspects that have hampered the rescue operation include delays in the arrival of aid packages and the altitude sickness experienced by many workers not native to the area. In a similar twist to the Sichuan earthquake of 2008, people have again been questioning why only government buildings have remained standing, whilst schools and homes have suffered the most destruction. Chinese news channels have been banned from reporting on these aspects of the disaster.

Japanese cameraman fatally shot in Bangkok

13 Apr 10 | Index Index, minipost, Uncategorized

A Japanese cameraman for Reuters, Hiro Muramoto, was fatally shot in the chest  whilst covering protests in Bangkok on 10 April. It is not apparent which side was responsible for the shooting, as Thai police used rubber bullets, tear gas and fired live ammunition into the air, whilst red shirt protesters were also accused of firing live rounds and grenades. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs have issued a statement calling for an independent investigation of Muramoto’s death.