News In Sweden, But Not Here
December 10, 2003
by Marg Hutton - SIEVX.COM
Khaleed Daoed, one of the alleged organisers of the fatal SIEVX ("suspected illegal entry vessel")
voyage in which 353 people, including 146 children, lost their lives,
appeared in Brisbane court for the second time on Monday. When Daoed
arrived in Brisbane last month after being extradited from Sweden he
made headlines, but when he faced court on Monday not one media
outlet in Australia considered the story newsworthy!
Daoed is the first person to appear before an Australian court
charged with offences connected with the infamous SIEVX voyage and
one would expect that our media would be watching. Instead it was
down to sievx.com to break the story that Daoed's case had been
adjourned until 5 April next year.
Surely this should have rated at least a paragraph in major
Australian newspapers? But instead all we got was silence.
Ironically there was one newspaper that reported on the story -
Arbetarbladet, a local newspaper published in Sandviken, Sweden, the
town where Daoed made his home for the last nine months prior to his
extradition.
But in our own country where there are very deep connections to the
SIEVX tragedy, there was nothing. For example, we have living in
Australia 14 people who embarked on SIEVX and scores of others who
lost family members in the sinking.
What does it say about the Australian media that this story went
unreported? Why was it considered not of interest to the Australian
public?
Significantly, Daoed is not the only alleged people smuggler to
appear before a court and to have his case go virtually unreported by
the Australian media.
The trials of alleged smuggling kingpins, Hasan Ayoub, Keis Asfoor
and Ali Hassan Abdolamir Al Jenabi have all received similar
treatment. That is, after initial reports of extradition, or
committal hearings, the media switches off and fails to follow these
cases through to their conclusion.
That there is a pattern of behaviour by our media in relation to
these cases is very troubling.
For many months in 2001, particularly during the Federal election
campaign, we were inundated with daily bulletins about the evils of
people smuggling.
Why the silence now when alleged smugglers face our legal system?
What is going on?
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