Trial By Media Continues

Why are the stories being told by released UK Guantanamo Bay inmates NOT making giant headlines around the world? Even the BBC seems reluctant to give any special attention to their claims of beatings, intimidation, inhumane treatment and government complicity.

The 650 Guantanamo detainees, held beyond the boundaries of US, UK and Australian law, are in effect being tried by the Western media. And by refusing to give their stories due seriousness, the media is effectively branding them guilty. Sadly, we, the people, seem happy enough with that.

The case of Australian Guantanamo Bay captive David Hicks is a good example. The 28-year-old Hick's greatest crime so far, it would seem, is to have posed with two friends for a picture with a bazooka on his shoulder. That, along with US military reports that he was aggressive and hard to handle, seems to be enough to satisfy most Australians of his guilt. His government is certainly doing nothing to help him. They wont even ask the US to send him home.

His fellow inmate Shafiq Rasul, who has been returned to England, told The Observer that the Adelaide-born Mr Hicks now occupies his mind all day by catching and killing mice, as a means of staying sane.

Based on media reports, most Australians now believe that Hicks is a psychopathic terrorist killer. Those who do not believe this would seem to believe he is just a psychopathic killer who deserves whatever he gets. But what crime has he actually committed? Even if he was acting as a mercenary gun-for-hire, there is (perhaps unfortunately) no law against that. Indeed, half the US contractor staff in Baghdad today are probably ex-military muscle.

Hicks' family have been trying desperately for over 2 years to raise the profile of his "story" in the Australian and international media. Now, joined by a suprisingly supportive US-appointed military lawyer, they are even releasing a documentary film: "The President Versus David Hicks".

Why on earth does this situation exist? Why should a family need to resort to such measures? Why did we, the people of Australia, the UK and the USA allow Bush and his cronies to throw people in Guantanamo Bay and leave them to rot? Why didn't we demand justice and trial by law? What sort of society do we want to live in?

Is this the ultimate triumph of fascism? Big business controls the media - even intimidating the BBC - and becomes effectively the judge, jury and executioner of every one of us.