December 1998

Aid volunteers head for Kosova (23 Dec 1998)

Anarchy on the Airwaves (Dec 18, 1998)

T&A Editor sticks by "riot" story (Dec 9, 1998)

Top Cop admits to "riot mistake" (Dec 3 1988)

 Aid volunteers head for Kosova

. Rachel and Cameron set off for occupied Kosova today, to deliver aid and to set up contacts for future trips. The duo are members of the Bradford Aid for Kosova campaign, which in just 2 months has raised thousands of pounds locally. Their visas for the visit came through yesterday.

The group started in mid October and after several hectic weeks of fundraising (parachute jumps, jumbles sales, benefit gigs, pub collections etc) a sum of just over £2000 has been raised. They are travelling over with people from Manchester Workers Aid for Kosova and will be making contact with the miners who have been in the front line of the struggle since the beginning.

After Xmas a 40 ton truck from Dublin is going and will possibly take aid collected by Bradford.

Further visits are planned for February and there are plans to take over educational aid, donated by Bradford College, in August. This will involve several trucks and a national Workers Aid operation.

There is also the beginning of an idea for a festival in Kosova to try and bring the youth of all former Yugoslavia together, to try and overcome the differences forced upon them by the politicians and UN.

See also: Kosova - Dirty War.

Anarchy on the Airwaves

The KDIS news service found it's way onto the airwaves this month, as part of the 1 in 12 Club's radio offering "anarchy on the airwaves".

The Club was given a regular Friday evening slot on BCB's schedule for its latest 4-week transmission period, which ends this weekend. Bradford Community Broadcasting take around 4 month-long licenses each year, but are looking to get a permanent transmission licence in the near future. They broadcast full-time on Yorkshire Cable.

The last chance to catch KDIS on-air live is tonight, 6.30 pm on BCB (107 FM).

BCB's website, including live audio link, is at http://www.bcb.yorks.com

T&A Editor sticks by "riot" story

Perry Austin-Clarke was offering no apologies for the T&A coverage of the bonfire night events in Manningham, despite the false information from the police which led to the headline "Mob go on bonfire rampage":

"We'd received enough in terms of eye witness reports and we'd got the evidence of our own eyes to see. You know, everyday events aren't riot police on the streets, whether that's an over reaction or not, they don't turn out for nothing."

And he lay the blame for the errors in his paper at the door of the police:

"We were misled by the police which made us look wrong, to an extent. I think that by the time the final edition came out we were putting a different perspective on it."

Telegraph & Argus editor Perry Austin-Clarke talked to KDIS about his newspapers coverage of the events in Manningham on bonfire night

Full interview

Main feature: The riot that never was

Top Cop admits to "riot mistake"

The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, Graham Moore, admitted to KDIS last night that the police made a mistake when they claimed that petrol bombs had been found in Manningham last month.

A Press Release, issued from the police HQ in Wakefield at 3.20 am on Friday, November 6th, falsely claimed that "a group of 80 youths" threw rockets at Toller Lane police station and that during a subsequent search of the area "petrol bombs were recovered".

In fact less than a dozen youths were involved, and only an empty crate of milk bottles was found. Press claims that "a car sales room and a bargain shop were gutted by fire" during "disturbances" were also false.

The Chief Constable told KDIS "An officer made a mistake. It was our mistake. What happened was the message was slightly distorted." He said there had been a communications error between police in Bradford and the officer in Wakefield who fed the story onto the media "news line".

"The officer who released the message had not done anything wicked or lazy. He had done his best. What we have done is learn from what's happened and made sure it will not happen again."

Mr. Moore described the alleged Bonfire night "disturbances" as just "normal occurrences". He said police met with council leaders at 9 am next morning and "did their best to remedy the situation". But councillor leader Ian Greenwood disputes this. He said that after an hour and a half they had made little progress with the police, who subsequently issued "a bland statement".

After almost a month, this is the first admission from the police that they were responsible for creating the "non-riots" story. The Chief Constable was speaking at the Bradford Central Police Community forum.

See previous posting: "Police blamed for non-riots"

See Main feature: The riot that never was

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