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Its a sad reflection on the national papers that hostages in the Middle East are not worthy of front page news any more.

The latest American hostage Jeffrey Ake reached Page 30 in the Daily Mirror with his plea for help, I hope other papers put his plight as more of a priority!:(

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Surely the fact that ex-Big Brother contestant Jade Goody is having a new baby is much more newsworthy?

We deserve the press that we get.


The Sun is the most popular 'newspaper'?


Serious point, because l agree with you. l wonder how much international news is reported in the American press when it doesn't concern themselves? How much did they read about the terrible attrocities that we endured, inflicted by the IRA? Unless they were pro-Republican supporting papers that applauded the actions.

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very little british news is put in any foreign newspaper,and same vice versa,totally agree with the thinking busman,but ask the question you will get the answer(crap sells papers)put more diplomatically than i have,but its an indictment on society in general i think.

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That's why I don't buy newspapers.

I don't give a toss what Posh and Becks had for breakfast, or any other celebrity, for that matter.

There is so little news around - I think I'll stick with half an hour of BBC Breakfast news and Working Lunch. I look at the headlines on the lunchtime news to see if there is anything of interest on there as well, and if not, I hit the orange button on the remote...

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I have a different opinion on this.

The only reason these people are kidnapped is to get the press coverage. If we as a country take little public interest in the kidnappings then what is the point of kidnapping people in the first place.

Its a bit simplistic I know but I always tell my son to ignore people if they are calling him names and not to react to them.

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I see the point you are making Neil but I am not convinced that atrocities like this will go away if the public ignore the situation and in the meantime, I for one would like to be kept abreast of international news that may concern me or this country in the future.

Not only relevent news but for instance, since or just after the tsunami, the Government and Tamal Tigers were reported to have had a ceasefire in Sri Lanka, I have yet to see any report in the papers confirming this is still true or not.

That brings me to another niggle with the British Press, how many times have they splashed potential news in their papers like "Heads of State meeting to discuss world poverty".... but rarely seem to find the space in the papers to explain after the event what was done or said (unless a streaker happened to be there!:eek: )

The local rags are particularly good at this with headlines such as "Men arrested for armed robbery" but when the court hands down sentences, it is hardly worthy of a little corner of the paper somewhere in the middle!

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I don't buy a paper,but people that do get what they want to read!!! the papers that sell the most copies know their readers don't want proper news! People say things like"I'm fed up of Posh n Becks" "I'm fed up of reading about the Royals" but sales go up when these sort of stories are on the front page,I'd change papers Busman or better still save your money!:)

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I think the same low key reporting happens about Northern Ireland.
If you read our papers and watch our TV news you could be forgiven for thinking things are a lot calmer over there now. We almost moved over a few years ago. We spent a couple of weekends looking for houses etc. I was amazed when I saw and read the news over there. It was like nothing had changed since before the so called 'peace process'.

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One interesting point is that the newspapers (and the TV) did not report the proceedings of the trial of the Algerian terrorist & his mates until the verdict was announced. The press, was of course, subject to a banning order on the basis that the Bourgass had already been found guilty (again unreported) of the murder of Constable Oake and thus a possible inference of guilt on the part of the jury in the second trial.

However, this is not the end of the matter. There are 4 more terrorist trials currently underway with a similar number in the pipeline, again with the press under notice not to report; the reason - interlinkage between the accused in each trial. We shall have to wait and see what the verdicts will be and what has been the evidence before the courts.

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Probably get some stick for this but...why do these people carry on working in a country that has made no secret of it's hatred and treatment of foreigners? I thought the same about when Ken Bigley was a hostage;he had made no secret of going out there to do one last "big job" ;he endangered his life,put his family thru hell and ended up dying because of ignoring warnings not to go and by being too greedy.I have far more sympathy for the hostage's family in these cases;the words "I told you so" probably ringing in their ears forever more. I am not condoning the kidnapping in anyway;it's a cowardly and horrific form of counter attack but if you are out there you have chosen to put yourself at risk.

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agree with your opinion lindsay,and have used the same arguments long ago,most do give you stick,@look at you like you don't care,sad really that some can't see a different perspective.

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Lindsay, another way to look at it is that people never expect these things to happen to them.......it is like road accidents.... they only happen to other people.
The person who touched me the most was Margaret Hassan.......she had adopted Iraq, married an Iraqi and was doing work that would enhance the life of the ordinary Iraqis........and they murdered her.......she wasn't even British, she was from Southern Ireland......... who played no part in the conflict.
What a very tragic end to the life of a good woman.

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I agree with you 100% Margaret;but I still say that people who put themselves in these situations ,for whatever reasons,do so at their own risk and really shouldn't be that surprised when they find themselves in a life or death situation.I sympathise with the families as I said previously but those British Citizens had the choice to leave, and those who stayed be they aid workers/clergy/nurses/ or just bloody greedy business men were all" fair game"".You pays your money,you take your choice" These people have chosen to be there at the time;no one can claim they were unaware of the dangers.

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[QUOTE=lindsay ormerod]Probably get some stick for this but...why do these people carry on working in a country that has made no secret of it's hatred and treatment of foreigners? /QUOTE]

No stick Lindsey but you must bear in mind that business men cannot sit on their posterior and wait for business to come to them. It doesn't work that way!

He was in a country effectively controlled by western armies, It is a HOT country....and he ran a company that supplied water coolers for offices!

I am sure he realised the dangers but companies have to do all in their power nowadays to gain business and safeguard the jobs of his workforce. At what point do you say it is safe to travel in a country that has recently been at war? Should British firms stay away from Northern Ireland in case there is an upsurge in violence?:idunno: