Chris Gelken has nearly 20 years experience as a photographer, writer, news editor and broadcaster.

For the past 11 years Chris has been based in Asia where he now works for Hong Kong's leading AM radio news station, Metro Plus.

Chris also contributes freelance material on a wide variety of topics to newspapers, magazines and radio networks internationally.

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October 14, 1998 -- HONG KONG -- From the man who refused to publish former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten's book for fear of upsetting Beijing, comes an offer of THREE MILLION dollars for a kiss-and-tell deal with Monica Lewinsky. Mega-rich media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has allegedly made the offer for a television-newspaper serial-book tie up for the down and dirty on what happened between the former intern and the POTUS.

Seems to me that Murdoch has his priorities a little mixed up and is a mite too selective in his willingness to bite the hand that gave him the opportunity to get even richer. Murdoch acquired his American citizenship for business reasons -- another time, another place, and without his mega-bucks, Murdoch would have been classified as an economic refugee. If he'd published Patten's book I wouldn't have batted an eyelid when I read about the Lewinsky deal. But the old publish and be damned ethic seems to be a thing of the past. Murdoch apparently follows a new dictum -- publish only when the target isn't in a position to hurt your business.

It is an old gripe of mine -- how journalists can put a spin on a story and make opinion appear as fact. The other day I picked up three different wire service stories about the talks in New York between Portugal and Indonesia. All three wire services refered to the 'disputed' territory of East Timor. I've said it before -- and for those newcomers to APJ I'll say it again. Indonesia invaded East Timor and commited genocide against the native population. They illegally annexed the territory a year later. The United Nations does not recognise Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor and has repeatedly called for them to withdraw. These are the simple facts.
Therefore, I ask, where is the dispute?

It is a pertinent question to ask at this time -- why is NATO building up a massive air armada to blitz Yugoslavia for its alleged crimes in Kosovo -- yet Indonesia is still the recipient of one of the biggest IMF/World Bank bailouts in history? Y'know, on the face of it this doesn't make any sense.

The crimes and alleged crimes comitted by Serb forces in Kosovo are relatively minor compared to what happened in East Timor in the decades following the 1975 invasion. And remember, Kosovo has been part of Serbia for hundreds of years. It is also worth pointing out that the Kosovo Albanians are not above a bit of ethnic cleansing themselves. Richard Holbrooke's task of preventing an air-strike isn't being helped by complete instransigence on the part of the Kosovo political parties -- they want NATO to come in a blast the crap out of Serbia. Those guys ain't interested in negotiated settlement or peace - they want war and total independence. And they want American boys to fight for them.

The fact is, Serbia doesn't have oil, and with the collapse of the Warsaw Pact, it lost its strategic value as a moderate communist country that straddled the Iron Curtain. Indonesia does have oil in the Timor Gap -- oil that should belong to the Timorese people. Indonesia also has strategic value - allowing the passage of foreign warships and submarines on their way to Chinese waters -- avoiding a very long detour around the south of Australia.

So you see, it does make sense after all. Genocide is only comitted by countries that have no economic or strategic military value to Washington and London. If Murdoch ever decided to give up media and go into government service, he'd be a ringer for Secretary of State!

--Chris Gelken