BBC criticized for labelling Afghan footballer refugees as ‘false’

A team of young female Afghan footballers, seen here at a charity match in London in 2022, who were among those who fled Kabul. (AFP)
A team of young female Afghan footballers, seen here at a charity match in London in 2022, who were among those who fled Kabul. (AFP)
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Updated 19 March 2023

BBC criticized for labelling Afghan footballer refugees as ‘false’

BBC criticized for labelling Afghan footballer refugees as ‘false’
  • ‘Newsnight’ report claimed female players who fled Taliban rule to UK did not play for teams they named

LONDON: The BBC was at the center of another scandal after being accused of calling a group of Afghan female football players who escaped to the UK “false footballers.”

In a “Newsnight” report aired on Friday, of the 35 women and their families that fled to the UK through Pakistan in November 2021, 13 were claimed to have lied on their evacuation forms regarding the teams they played for.

Many social media users found the terminology condescending and belittling and argued that it detracted from the players’ bravery and accomplishments in escaping the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.

One of the players Mozhdah Howaida, posted a video on Twitter describing how she was approached by a BBC reporter, and “thought it was a joke.”

She said: “I came here all alone. I lost my family, my friends, my old ones behind to pursue my education to just play the game which I love.”

Howaida added that she was still dealing with “trauma and nightmares every single night.”

In a tweet, another player Zeynab Mozaffri, said: “I am one of the players you wrote about. It’s sad to read this. I have a question: How come the BBC chose to interview the male coach who left us behind and didn’t fight for us? We as women were at risk, and now he is saying we don’t deserve to be safe?”

In response to the criticism, the BBC issued an apology for any offense caused, emphasizing that it had not intended to diminish the players or their achievements.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We were initially contacted by the former women footballers still in Afghanistan who were unhappy they had been left behind and who had seen others claiming to be top-tier sportspeople granted refugee status. We investigated their claims.

“The BBC has taken care not to identify anyone who hasn’t previously been identified in other media but we will always carefully consider representations from those involved in stories.”


Surveillance nation: India spies on world’s largest population

Authorities say they are needed to improve governance and bolster security in a severely under-policed country. (AFP file photo)
Authorities say they are needed to improve governance and bolster security in a severely under-policed country. (AFP file photo)
Updated 20 March 2023

Surveillance nation: India spies on world’s largest population

Authorities say they are needed to improve governance and bolster security in a severely under-policed country. (AFP file photo)
  • Across the country, the use of CCTV and facial recognition is increasing in schools, airports, train stations, prisons and streets as authorities roll out a nationwide system to curb crime and identify missing children

NEW DELHI: Khadeer Khan was arrested in the south Indian city of Hyderabad in January after police claimed to have identified him from CCTV footage as a suspect in a chain snatching incident. He was released a few days later, and died while being treated for injuries he allegedly sustained while in custody.
The police said Khan was arrested because he looked like the man seen in the CCTV footage.
“When it was ruled out that Khadeer was not the one who had committed the crime, he was released. Everything was done as per procedure,” said K. Saidulu, a deputy superintendent of police.
But human rights activists say the 36-year-old was clearly misidentified — a growing risk with the widespread use of CCTV in Telangana state, which has among the highest concentrations of the surveillance technology in the country.
“We have been warning for many years that CCTV and facial recognition technology can be misused for harassment, and that they can misidentify people,” said S.Q. Masood, a human rights activist who filed a lawsuit in 2021 challenging the use of facial recognition in Telangana that is still ongoing.

HIGHLIGHTS

• India poised to become world's most populous nation

• Increased digitisation of services has led to greater surveillance, activists say

• Authorities say surveillance needed to curb crime

“This case has exposed just how harmful it can be,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Across the country, the use of CCTV and facial recognition is increasing in schools, airports, train stations, prisons and streets as authorities roll out a nationwide system to curb crime and identify missing children.
It’s not the only form of surveillance in the country.
The biometric national ID Aadhaar, with some 1.3 billion IDs issued, is linked to dozens of databases including bank accounts, vehicle registrations, SIM cards and voters’ lists, while the National Intelligence Grid aims to link nearly two dozen databases of government agencies for citizen profiles.
Meanwhile, policing of the Internet has also grown, with greater monitoring of social media, and the most frequent Internet shutdowns in the world.
Authorities say they are needed to improve governance and bolster security in a severely under-policed country. But technology experts say there is little correlation to crime, and that they violate privacy and target vulnerable people.
“Everything’s being digitised, so there’s a lot of information about a person being generated that is accessible to the government and to private entities without adequate safeguards,” said Anushka Jain, legal counsel at Internet Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group in Delhi.
“At a time when people are attacked for their religion, language and sexual identity, the easy availability of these data can be very harmful. It can also result in individuals losing access to welfare schemes, to public transport or the right to protest whenever the government deems it necessary.”

BIRTH TO DEATH
India is poised to become the world’s most populous country in April, overtaking China with more than 1.43 billion people, according to estimates by the United Nations.
The government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has prioritized the Digital India program to improve efficiency and streamline welfare schemes by digitising everything from land titles to health records to payments.
Aadhaar — the world’s largest biometric database — underpins many of these initiatives, and is mandatory for welfare, pension and employment schemes, despite a 2014 Supreme Court ruling that it cannot be a requirement for welfare programs.
Yet despite its wide adoption, millions face difficulties with their Aadhaar IDs because of inaccurate details or fingerprints that don’t match, and are denied vital services.
“The government claims linking to Aadhaar brings better governance, but it will lead to a totalitarian society because the government knows every individual’s profile,” said Srinivas Kodali at Free Software Movement of India, an advocacy group.
“The goal is to track everyone from birth to death. Anything linked to Aadhaar eventually ends up with the ministry of home affairs, and the policing and surveillance agencies, so dissent against the government becomes very difficult,” he added.
The ministry of home affairs did not respond to a request for comment.
The latest iteration of digitization is Digi Yatra, which was rolled out at the Delhi, Bengaluru and Varanasi airports in December. It allows passengers to use their Aadhaar ID and facial recognition for check-ins at airports.
The ministry of civil aviation has said Digi Yatra leads to “reduced wait time and makes the boarding process faster and more seamless,” with dedicated lanes for those using the app.
But those who choose to not use Digi Yatra may be viewed with suspicion and subject to additional checks, said Kodali.
The data — including travel details — can also be shared with other government agencies, and may be used to put people on no-fly lists, and stop activists, journalists and dissenters from traveling, as is already happening, said Kodali.
The ministry of civil aviation did not respond to a request for comment.

ATTENDANCE APPS
Some of the lowest-paid public-sector workers in India bear the brunt of the government’s surveillance mechanisms.
Municipal workers across the country are required to wear GPS-enabled watches that are equipped with a camera that takes snapshots, and a microphone that can listen in on conversations.
The watches feed a stream of data to a central control room, where officials monitor the movements of each employee, and link the data to performance and salaries.
Authorities have said the goal is to improve efficiency. Workers across the country have protested the surveillance.
In January, the federal government said that the National Mobile Monitoring Software (NMMS) app would be mandatory for all workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), after having rolled it out in several states last year.
Women make up nearly 60 percent of the more than 20 million beneficiaries nationwide who get 100 days of work in a year, and are paid a daily wage of up to 331 rupees ($4).
The new system requires the supervising officer, called a mate, to upload pictures of the laborers when they start work and when they finish, as proof of their attendance, which was marked in manual logs earlier.
But this requires the mate — usually a woman — to have a smartphone and a stable Internet connection twice a day, which is near impossible in many rural areas, said Rakshita Swamy, a researcher with the non-profit Peoples’ Action for Employment Guarantee.
“If the pictures don’t get uploaded, the workers are considered absent, and they don’t get paid for the work,” she said.
“There is also hesitation among the women about having their pictures taken. There is no transparency about what happens to these photographs — it’s highly likely that they are being used to train facial recognition algorithms,” she added.
Hundreds of NREGS workers are holding a protest in Delhi, calling for payment of back wages and doing away with the app.
The ministry of rural development has said the app would lead to “more transparency and ensure proper monitoring” of workers, without addressing surveillance concerns.
A long-delayed data protection law, which is awaiting passage in parliament, would offer little recourse as it gives sweeping exceptions to government agencies, say privacy experts.
In Rajasthan state, which has among the highest number of Internet shutdowns in the country, Kamla Devi, a mate in Ajmer district, has struggled with the NMMS app for several months.
“On many days, there’s no network, and I tell the workers to go home. There’s no point if they work because they won’t get paid,” she said.
“This app is ruining livelihoods. It was better when we had a manual attendance log.”

 

 


BBC football commentator Lineker returns after suspension for criticizing government

BBC football commentator Lineker returns after suspension for criticizing government
Updated 20 March 2023

BBC football commentator Lineker returns after suspension for criticizing government

BBC football commentator Lineker returns after suspension for criticizing government
  • BBC managers reversed their decision to suspend Lineker, the broadcaster's highest-paid presenter
  • "It was a really difficult situation for everyone concerned," Lineker's co-presenter Alan Shearer said in a short statement

LONDON: Former England football captain Gary Lineker returned to host the BBC’s flagship football show on Saturday, a week after his suspension for criticizing government immigration policy caused a row over the broadcaster’s impartiality rules.

BBC managers reversed their decision to suspend Lineker, the broadcaster’s highest-paid presenter, after his colleagues refused to work in solidarity last weekend, forcing it to air football matches without normal commentary.

The controversy shook the public broadcaster, which is funded by a levy on nearly all British households with televisions, and which often faces accusations of bias from across the political spectrum.

“It was a really difficult situation for everyone concerned,” Lineker’s co-presenter Alan Shearer said in a short statement to viewers before the start of the BBC’s broadcast of an FA Cup quarter-final game between Burnley and Manchester City.

“And through no fault of their own, some really great people on TV and in radio were put in an impossible situation, and that wasn’t fair. So it’s good to get back to some sort of normality and be talking about football again,” Shearer said.

Lineker said: “I absolutely echo those sentiments.”

Lineker, who has hosted refugees in his home, had been suspended on March 10 for a tweet that called government policy on migration “immeasurably cruel” and compared language used to support it to “that used by Germany in the 30s.”

BBC news reporters and current affairs presenters are required to avoid making politically partisan statements, though those guidelines do not generally apply to other staff or to presenters on freelance contracts such as Lineker.

He refused to apologize for his tweet and the opposition Labour Party accused the broadcaster of caving in to government pressure by suspending him. After reinstating Lineker, the BBC said it would review how its impartiality guidelines applied to freelance presenters’ use of social media.

Reducing illegal migration is one of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s top policy goals for 2023.

More than 45,000 people — mostly young men from Albania, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq — crossed the Channel in small boats last year, preferring to seek asylum in Britain rather than other countries they had traveled through in Europe.

Interior minister Suella Braverman has described these arrivals as an “invasion” and is seeking to deport thousands of migrants to Rwanda.


Saudi Arabia wins first grand prix in mobile category at Dubai Lynx

Saudi Arabia wins first grand prix in mobile category at Dubai Lynx
Updated 18 March 2023

Saudi Arabia wins first grand prix in mobile category at Dubai Lynx

Saudi Arabia wins first grand prix in mobile category at Dubai Lynx
  • Kingdom also collects gold trophy in radio and audio section

DUBAI: Dubai Lynx, the Middle East’s festival for creative excellence in branded communications, has awarded this year’s winners at a ceremony in Dubai.

Ian Fairservice, the vice chairman of Dubai Lynx, said: “After a successful return to a physical event yesterday, I’d like to congratulate our 2023 Dubai Lynx award winners for setting the creative benchmark in MENA for a 16th year.”

This year marked Saudi Arabia’s first grand prix in the mobile category, which was awarded to delivery app HungerStation and its agency Wunderman Thompson for their campaign “The Subconscious Order.”

A new feature on the HungerStation app has been introduced to recognize when a user has been scrolling for some time. The “subconscious ordering” tool is then launched.

The app then displays a variety of cuisines, and the front camera tracks the eye’s interest. Using artificial intelligence and proprietary food topic modeling, the app then suggests a list of relevant restaurants.

The campaign, which was also deployed on HungerStation’s social media channels, resulted in 2.5 million impressions and 78,000 new customers.

Saudi Arabia also won its first gold trophy in the radio and audio category, thanks to the campaign “Sound of the Flag,” created by SRMG Labs and the King Salman Center for Disability Research.

National Day is the biggest celebration in the Kingdom, yet approximately 720,000 people with impaired hearing are unable to listen to the national anthem.

So, the two companies teamed up to design a wearable “hearing flag” that enables people to feel the song.

The flag features sensors in the fabric to create an immersive experience that brings music to life in a way that the body can feel physically.

Simon Cook, CEO at Cannes Lions, said: “We can see lots of exciting shifts taking place in the Middle East and North Africa, and this year’s winners really showcase the level of excellence coming from the region and the new trends emerging from a post-pandemic body of work.”

Leo Burnett was named network of the year and its Dubai office was named MENA agency of the year, while Starcom received the award for media network of the year.

The full list of winners can be viewed here.
 


ABG supports global diversity, inclusion census

ABG supports global diversity, inclusion census
Updated 18 March 2023

ABG supports global diversity, inclusion census

ABG supports global diversity, inclusion census
  • Second edition will identify where change is needed

DUBAI: The Advertising Business Group has announced its support for the second edition of the global diversity, equity and inclusion census.

The main goal of the second edition is to measure the state of diversity, equity and inclusion in the marketing and advertising industry, to monitor progress of the results of the inaugural 2021 census — which was launched by the World Federation of Advertisers  — and identify key areas where change is needed.

The first census found that one in seven people would consider leaving their company or the industry due to a lack of diversity and inclusion. The figure went up to one in four in some markets.

The WFA published a Charter for Change in the wake of the census.

Leyal Eskin, ABG chair, said: “While we have all been focusing on digital innovations and technologies which will make the industry more productive and efficient, it’s important that we don’t take our eyes off the human side, because it’s only by building a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce [that] we will be able to attract new talent, and ensure a sustainable industry for years to come.”

The Global DEI Census is a collaboration between the WFA, VoxComm, Campaign, Kantar, Advertising Week, Cannes Lions, Effie Worldwide, the International Advertising Association, the European Association of Communication Agencies, the Global Web Index, and the International Council for Advertising Self-Regulation.

More than 150 organizations have come together to run the research and make it one of the biggest collaborations in the history of the global marketing industry.

People from across the industry — including brands, agencies, the media, tech, consultancies, and marketing services providers — can fill in the survey here.

The findings will be presented in June at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE FIRST EDITION

- 40 percent of women said family status can hinder careers.

- 36 percent said age can hinder careers at their company.

- Nearly half (47 percent) of women with children under 16 agreed that their family status hindered their careers, compared to 22 percent of men with children under 16.

- Only 35 percent said their company provided equal pay for equal work.

- 43 percent said that the best opportunities go to the most deserving employees.

- 30 percent agreed with the statement “I have observed inappropriate behavior within my company.”


Snapchat launches new content controls for Family Center

Snapchat launches new content controls for Family Center
Updated 17 March 2023

Snapchat launches new content controls for Family Center

Snapchat launches new content controls for Family Center
  • Feature will allow parents to filter out sensitive or suggestive material
  • Company also publishes new content guidelines for community members

DUBAI: Snapchat has added a new feature to give parents more control over the type of content their children can see.

An addition to its Family Center, the new content controls “will allow parents to filter out Stories from publishers or creators that may have been identified as sensitive or suggestive,” the company said on its website.

The platform has also published new content guidelines “for members of our community whose content appears on Stories or Spotlight,” it said.

The platform has also published new content guidelines “for members of our community whose content appears on Stories or Spotlight.” (Supplied)

Stories is the name of Snapchat’s content platform, and Spotlight is its entertainment service.

“From the start, Snapchat was designed to be different,” said Georg Wolfart, head of policy at Snap Inc.

“As opposed to traditional social media platforms, Snapchat was made to provide a private, positive and safe platform to interact, which includes what content is consumed. Snapchat provides a non-judgmental platform to enhance real relationships with the people and things you love.”

He added: “We are deliberate about the type of content we allow on our platform, and our policies are designed to uphold these standards.”

The company claims to reach more than 90 percent of 13- to 34-year-olds and 71 percent of parents in Saudi Arabia.