A journalist looks on during a media tour of a damaged house where Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inspectors are belived to have visited in Douma near Damascus, Syria April 23, 2018. REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho
This report by Dr. Catherine Brown (@neolawrencian), who attended the event, is based on her transcription (as near to verbatim as possible) of the presentations, questions, and answers as they were given. Speakers and questioners were then given the opportunity to clarify their statements post facto. It should be noted that Professor Paul McKeigue’s presentation in particular has been expanded to reproduce the full text of the Powerpoint presentation from which he was speaking. The hyperlinks have been largely sourced by the report-compiler, whose editorial text insertions are indicated by square brackets.
It was written at the invitation of the event’s organiser, Sheila Coombes, and has been approved by her and by the speakers.
By Tim Hayward
Published on the author’s own website, Feb 1, 2020
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Wednesday 22nd January 2020, 3-5 pm
The Thatcher Room, Portcullis House, Westminster, London, UK
CHAIR: John Holmes (Major General, rtd.)
SPEAKERS
Paul McKeigue (Professor of Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh)
David Miller (Professor of Political Sociology, University of Bristol, @Tracking_Power)
Piers Robinson (Doctor, Co-Director of the Organisation for Propaganda Studies and Convenor of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media [WGSPM], former Chair/Professor University of Sheffield and former Senior Lecturer University of Manchester, @PiersRobinson1)
Jonathan Steele (Independent journalist, formerly chief foreign correspondent for The Guardian, @SteeleJourno)
ORGANISERS
Sheila Coombes (Founder of Independent Anti-War Group Frome Stop War)
Room booking sponsored by Fabian Hamilton (Shadow Minister for Peace and Disarmament)
This report, by Dr. Catherine Brown (@neolawrencian), who attended the event, is based on her transcription (as near to verbatim as possible) of the presentations, questions, and answers as they were given. Speakers and questioners were then given the opportunity to clarify their statements post facto. It should be noted that Professor Paul McKeigue’s presentation has been expanded to reproduce the full text of the Powerpoint presentation from which he was speaking. The hyperlinks have been largely sourced by the report-compiler, whose editorial text insertions are indicated by square brackets.
REPORT ON THE HOUSE OF COMMONS PRESENTATION CONCERNING OPCW LEAKS ABOUT DOUMA
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Tim Hayward maintains this blog as a site for his personal reflections on issues of applied epistemology. In everyday terms, the posts are about how we can know what is going on in the world when everything we hear is highly mediated, and when the media transmitting the information are subject to particular kinds of constraint whose purpose is not necessarily to permit a free flow of truth and reasoned argument.
He writes in this space as a concerned citizen, in his personal civic capacity.
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