Just got back from the Dubai Literary Festival. Great atmosphere. Unfortunately, was only able to be there for the Friday and Saturday, but managed to get to four talks. Interesting one on Impartial Journalism- a myth? with Christine Lamb, Gisele Khoury and Charles Arthur. Christine Lamb particularly interesting as she said how she had self censored an interview with President Karzai of Afhanistan who had said some incediary things about the British, which if she had reported she felt would have caused an uproar in the UK and possibly led to a demand for withdrawal of British troops. Seems he then contacted her and begged her not to print these remarks. If these remarks were so incendiary was she not letting her own views influence reporting of the interview. Jeremy Bowens Orwell Lecture on Journalism in dangerous times, covered much the same ground and he stated that a journalist cannot be impartial and cited his own testimony at Hague War Crimes trials on Bosnian Atrocities. I think that the journalist needs to give us the facts as s/he sees them but should make his own position clear. Another interesting discussion was by Rachel Hore and John Boyne on History in Fiction. I recommend Boynes books The boy in the stripped pajamas and The House of Special Purposes. Also went to Andrew Motions A life of Poetry, a gentle and reflected discussion on how poetry has been the driving force in his life. Saw other literary celebrities, like Kate Adie, who got into the taxi I was vacating and was very grumpy at being recognized. Paxman, who was having a row with someone at the authors desk and Pam Ayres. I would like to have gone to more events. This has definitely given me encouragement to go to other literary events. Maybe something to do more if I ever retire. All in all a good way to spend the weekend.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 04:02:30 +0000
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