Yvonne Ridley and Press TV

mac

"Most working class people I know would find this completely appalling."

Quite, but why are you bothering to project your own rationality onto a woman who is demonstrably away with the fairies, as any member of the nothing if not sensible Tyneside working class would conclude if they spent 5 minutes in her company?

logdon

Most 'working class' people who I know are salt of the earth characters who work hard and struggle on minimum wages to make ends meet under the convoluted state pressures from this sordid apology of a 'fair' government.

Although never failing to call a spade a spade, they are certainly not racist but I'm afraid would show short shrift to the likes of a puffed up, indoctrinated pseudo islamist like Ridley.

Remember these people bear the brunt of multiculturalism.

They're not your Toynbees and Ashley who retreat to the leafy up market suburbs after getting down with the proles, for them equality is not just some easy word tossed off at a dinner party, it's what it says on the label. It can’t be spun. It is....equality.

They don’t hate Muslims, that is fact, what they object to is the ever increasing numbers and perceived disparity when it comes to Goverment handouts and Council housing allocation.

Ridley, the classic useful idiot, using her incarceration as a springboard to fame like a ghastly Taliban reality show has aligned with that odious trot/islamist faction who purport to conflate islam with equality.

What a charade? What a show designed to fool us all?

Here’s the truth of Islamic ‘female emancipation’ from Jihadwatch

“Jul 4, 2009 23:04 | Updated Jul 5, 2009 10:07
'They accused me of laughing in public'
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

A Palestinian female journalist complained over the weekend that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her under the pretext that she came to a Gaza beach dressed immodestly and was seen laughing in public.”

Laughing in public now an offence if you’re a woman? Not much to laugh at in the Islamic paradise of Gaza is there?

Prodicus

You missed all her spots on Al Jazeera, then.

Fabio P.Barbieri

I realize that personal friendships sometimes trump political differences, but if Martin Bright is surprised at Yvonne Ridley's mentally challenged attitude, then he has missed everything she has said and done for the last decade or more.

Yvonne Ridley

Martin - it would have been more helpful had you included the entire posting instead of erm, censoring my words ... but glad to know we're still friends.

Yvonne Ridley

ps Martin: Funny how you criticise me for earning a crust, yet you are happy to go on a propaganda trip to Israel paid for by an arms dealer.
Any you are not writing about the journalists who have been locked up by Israel and are being brow beaten as we speak into signing false confessions about why they went on the Free Gaza boat.

Random

She is also talking out of her backside. The only reason that rural areas appeared to vote Ahmadinejad is that they were easier to stuff, while being transported through quiet countryside to be counted. Weren't the 50 regions with greater than 100% turnout (by the Iranian government's admission; probably more) in rural areas?

David Boothroyd

Yvonne, you don't seem to be able to tell the difference between censorship (where an authority prevents you from saying what you want) and selecting the relevant material to quote, which is absolutely routine.

Richard

Yvonne

Cna there possibky be any excuse for working fro Press TV? If you think there is, watch this video, stories from a protester in London:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drFJ8h4E-sE

Sam Armstrong

July 30?

yvonne ridley

David Boothroyd,
How can you make that judgment when you don't even know what I'm talking about? What a pompous ass. it's sometimes called creative editing - but I can see martin will have great difficulty in being impartial when he clearly has undeclared interests in Israel.

Gil

Yvonne Ridley, don't you realise how utterly ridiculous you sound when you reduce everything to a comparison with what Israel does or doesn't do? It's become an obsession of yours, hasn't it?

Do you think that the protesters in Iran care about some trip or other to Israel more than the fact that they are being tortured or even murdered?

You are so full of propaganda that you could open your own tv channel on behalf of Iran.

Fergus Pickering

Oh Christ! A working class lass from Tyneside. Lord save us. How much do you EARN, Yvonne, whoever you are. How much do you EARN for saying the things you do? How RICH do you have to be before you are no longer a working class lass from Tyneside. Or are you working class for ever because it's in youir genes, like Fatty Prescott. How can you type that sort of thing? Easily. Easily.
And why are Iranian peasants good gradely people whereas, say French peasants who vote for Le Pen are not? I suppose one has to be picky about one's peasants.

husain ali

Where is the proof that the elections were stolen? There were certainly irregularities (as there have been in the UK with the postal voting fiasco) but not enough to affect the outcome. Don't forget pre election polls predicted Ahmadi would lose in Tehran but win nationally, and that is what happenned. The Iranian government governs with the consent of the majority (unlike Britain's mates in the region like Egyopt and Saudi), and the disatisfied minority have to learn to accept the will of the majority. As for murdering and torturing people, all these are just allegations at the moment and the law must take its course. If the govenment starts shooting peoople in the streets then Press TV's staff have a decision to make. But we are not there yet. Iran is a stable, peaceful country at the moment where the people have more rights than almost anywhere else in the region. This despite 30 years of warmongering and sanctions imposed by the west and their proxies, making it imopossible for Iran to develop nornmally. What do you people want - for Iran to become like Iraq or Afghanistan? And what for what -so that women can remove the hijab or so that the young can get drunk and listeh to hip hop?

tired

Mr bright please inform ridley that when she is not living in iran she cannot understand what REALLY happens here. A majority of people voted for mousavi to get rid of ahmadinejad. Even working class. The problem here is that all educated people hate the new government and ahmadinejad deceives uneducated ones by state-run internal TVs. If you see internal news you will get the point. The election was completely rigged. No doubt.

Hoob's Nature

Yvonne Ridgley, people like you are responsible for the rise of the BNP. For god sake, what is the connection between Israel and Iran killing its own people? You are so deluded and painfully blind to the point that I actually support your appearance on Press TV, the gutter of the world media- where you belong.

Alexandrovich

Husain Ali: "If the govenment starts shooting peoople in the streets then Press TV's staff have a decision to make."
If? IF?

Geordie Slostizleggie

Yvonne Ridley proves once again that the working classes are politically illiterate

valdemar

What a twerp Ridley is. She plays the class card because she can't play the race card, presumably. How can anyone support an election result where voter turnout in some areas was officially reported as more than 100 per cent? Lunacy. Orwell was right when he said that ordinary people (perhaps he meant the working class) will never believe things that self-styled intellectuals find easy to credit.

logdon

Is this the first recorded case of Stockton Syndrome?

Steve.W

We all make mistakes, however, I'm amazed The Times, Independent, Daily Mirror and Observer were all conned into employing Ridley as a reporter. Not so much a chip on the shoulder more like a timber yard in her case.

ps - I have no difficulty in being impartial as I have no undeclared interests in timber!

steve

Most working class people I know

I'm not on Yvonne's side here, but genuinely, how many working-class Iranians do you actually know, Martin? Even without the clear vote-rigging, it's by no means the case that Ahmedinejad definitely would have lost. he is still pretty popular over there, it's just his supporters don't have links to the west. and that was ridley's point.

you are going to be waiting a long time for your mate Gilligan to stop working for Press TV, by the way.

Way to oppose fascism, you're mates with people who work for fascists and you had no problem with it until about a week ago, for some reason.

Dermot Moloney

"Iran is a stable, peaceful country at the moment where the people have more rights than almost anywhere else in the region."

Pretty stupid comment, if you bothered to look into any rights groups reports such as amnesty international, freedom house, red cross or red crescent from the middle east you will find Iran has one of the most oppressive governments in the region, it is easily just as bad as Egypt in many ways, in fact according to freedom house Egypt is a little bit freer, in a proper democracy the people should have the right to take part in elections which can remove the head of state or the party which is in power, in Iran and like many other middle eastern nations that is not possible, Khameini is in charge and that’s it.

"Iran is a stable, peaceful country"
A country in which protesters are being shot and tortured is not a peaceful country

"Where is the proof that the elections were stolen?"
Check out Juan Coles website informed comment, he paid close attention to the election and shows how the chances of Amadinejad winning by such a margin is ridiculous

Lucy Lux

Husain Ali

"Where is the proof that the election was stolen?" Trick question, implying that if we can't 'prove' there was massive vote-rigging, we're entitled to no opinion on the matter, still less to comment critically on the election outcome. Amazingly, as the government appears to have allowed neither candidates nor their representatives in on their speed vote counting (etc etc) there is no 'proof'.

"Pre-elction polls predicted.." - who conducted them, Husain?

You clearly believe "Ahmadi" won but you can't 'prove' that either, can you?

Have you ever been to Iran? I haven't a drop of Iranian blood (so feel able to call myself unbiased) but am fortunate in having visited Iran several times, staying some time in Tehran but mainly in several provincial cities, and travelling around the country. Comments from taxi-drivers, shopkeepers, caretakers, etc, lead to my view that with properly counted votes, Moussavi would probably have won the election, if not outright, then with the highest number of votes. (Compare the votes for Khatami's first election.) And I don't know anyone living in North Tehran.

Iranians have "more rights" than almost anywhere else in the region - not a very high standard here, Husain.

"What do you people want - - so that women can remove the hijab"? I don't know if you've visited Iran, but I'm sure you've never worn compulsory hijab - try it sometime, Husain (or is that beneath you?): scarf, meaning you can't lose much heat through your head, jacket to your neck, arms covered, etc - in a temperature of say 40F. Or would you be one of the men in open-necked shirts and (forbidden) short sleeves?

In my view, no self-respecting journalist can possibly continue to work for Press TV especially now that, following the crack-down, state-controlled media are virtually the only sources of news from Iran.

blueharry

Lucy Lux writes

"Pre-elction polls predicted.." - who conducted them, Husain?

The answer is here

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061401757.html

The Iranian People Speak

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Who's Blogging» Links to this article
By Ken Ballen and Patrick Doherty
Monday, June 15, 2009

The election results in Iran may reflect the will of the Iranian people. Many experts are claiming that the margin of victory of incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the result of fraud or manipulation, but our nationwide public opinion survey of Iranians three weeks before the vote showed Ahmadinejad leading by a more than 2 to 1 margin -- greater than his actual apparent margin of victory in Friday's election

Betty

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=100579§ionid=3510303