In this segment we want to clear some things up about what has been written in the media in the last six months. It can only be a small portion because the amount of information is enormous.
We have during this Congo-case experienced that the media coverage has had it’s shortcomings in different ways. The truth level has in some cases been way out there. A lot of the stories have more or less levels of truth and informational value. It is hard to know what to believe or what not to believe. The angle the media sometimes has chosen is misleading and appears to be more about sensation and a desire to sell newspapers. The media has not been interested in source criticism. Maybe they should’ve sent criminal reporters instead of news reporters, in order to maintain better source criticism.
Below we have some examples:
1. The witnesses
See in the headline “articles” how the so called “witnesses” have explained themselves to different medias and in the courtroom: (Passasjerene som ble Vitner og dernest gjort til Informanter som igjen slapp å avlegge ed i retten)
2. The training video
VG had a large article in the paper Monday September 14th about a trainingvideo that the Norwegian ambassador in Uganda received from John Hunwick. John Hunwick is the owner of the guesthouse Tjostolv and Joshua lived in Kampala. John Hunwick also owns Bussi Island where the training took place. He owns many other properties as well and we encourage the media to look further into his background. He also works for the Ugandan Intelligence. He has known about the training video and knew that the training was authorized by the Ugandan authorities. In the training video we see three men, two black and one white.
All three voluntarily took part in the training, and knew what it would involve. (according to Joshua he has participated in much harder training in England than what we see here.) One of the three, Samuel Ociti, was interviewed by VG. The other two didn’t want to. In VG we read among other things about a dog that French (Joshua) refers to in the video. VG writes: In an incident…. that VG have confirmed by a witness who was on the island, the young American was told to kill an old sick dog. He failed to kill the dog with the one shot he had, and French had to finish the job. Later they all got punished, and they had to hold the heavy iron bar over their heads.
When lawyer Furuholmen was on his way to Kisangani the first time, he was in Kampala and interviewed the three who was part of the training. The interviews were taped. There were two men from Uganda and one American. When Furuholmen came back to Norway he held a press conference on September 26th. Aftenposten got the exclusive listen to the tapes, but didn’t do much with the story. As far as I know it was just a little mention on the papers website.
We have their names and pictures of the three. Under “articles” you will find a transcript of the interviews: Interview with the 3 menn from the "training video" (In English) . Some words on the tapes are difficult to hear. We marked that with dots. In this interview Tom and Sam are not their actual names. Sam is the American.
Another part of the story is that the lawyer associate Jon Sverdrup Efjestad from Furuholmens Lawyer Company and I watched the training video in VG’s office, and we never saw a dog on this tape. After seeing the video I asked VG what they were going to do with it. If they where going to place it on internet? They responded that they hadn’t decided yet. Only a few minutes after we left the video was on the net!
Read the interviews under the headline “articles” - Intervju med guttene fra "treningsvideoen" (engelsk/English).
3. Dagbladet and misquotes:
Joshua was very upset by Dagbladets covering of the trial. Read more under the headline “Joshua and Tjostolv - Joshua 12th November: All lies (English version)”
4. Passport cheat
On October 5th we read the following in VG’s newspaper:
Quote: “VG has also got access to a police document that shows that Joshua French has reported a passport stolen in Tanzania on february 3rd 2008. The stolen passport was issued in Oslo and has another passport number than the passport that was issued in Vestfold (Norway) police department in 2007.”
Then, a brief interview with the head of legal department in the Police Department who explained that usually one can not have two passports but that there are exceptions. Maybe VG should have thought that when a person has double citizenship, the answer is quite simple.
Maybe it is not wise to listen to the Ugandan police as the only source before writing about passport cheating. They are not always the best sourcees. And again, it depends how much you pay in bribe.
The truth is: Joshua has both Norwegian and British citizenship. When Joshua was 18 I personally went to the consulate at the British Embassy in Oslo and got forms for him to fill out. He got his British passport issued at the British consulate in Oslo.
This passport was valid for ten years, and it was this passport that was reported stolen in Tanzania.
Kari Hilde French, November 18th 2009
