A Call For Justice

1984 was the worst year in history for the Sikhs of Punjab as they found themselves being robbed, tortured, raped and killed – why? Because they were Sikh - by who? Hindus, who were given the orders to carry out such disturbing, unforgivable actions by the Indian Government. The reason behind this has still never been clearly defined. Sikhs fought back and stopped such cruelty however 26 years on and no real justice has been given.

A press release which was released by Sikhs For Justice states that a mass grave from the 1984 Sikh genocide has been found – 26 years later. Activists in Punjab are urging people to bring social awareness to the issue through means such as social media in order to push this news around the world to Sikhs everywhere, to stop the Indian government forces destroying this evidence.

Social media has a great power, the ability share ideas and thoughts, encourage word of mouth and connect a nation through sending news all around the world reaching various audiences. Through the use of international media outlets and human rights agencies as well, this evidence will be hard to ignore and the evil behind the crime will be identified.

This is just one step closer to the fight for justice, for the brave Sikh children, men and women who suffered the brutal actions of such cowardly forces.  These Sikhs and the people of Punjab are referred to as the soldiers of 1984…and Sikhs today will not rest until full justice is given.

It has been urged for the press release to be circulated to create awareness of the news…

MASS GRAVE OF “SIKHS” KILLED IN NOVEMBER 1984 DISCOVERED IN HARYANA AFTER 26 YEARS

A mass Grave of Sikhs killed in November 1984 has been discovered after 26 years in village Hondh-Chillar, District Rewari, Haryana. The village was inhabited by several Sikh families and on November 02, 1984 in an organized and well planned attack, the entire village was burnt along with its Sikh population and Gurudwara. The village consisting of torched houses, a burnt Gurudwara and scattered human bones has now been discovered

As per attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun Legal Advisor to Sikhs For Justice, the forlorn debris and human remains at village Hondh-Chillar discovered after 26 years are the most specific and convincing evidence of Sikhs localities being attacked and wiped out throughout India in a identical pattern. The evidence discovered on site indicates systematic pattern in which armed groups lead by Congress Leaders would cordon Sikh neighborhoods, rape the women and burn the men and children alive. “The discovery of Mass Grave of Sikhs in Haryana proves that Nanavati Commission’s scope of inquiry into the killing of Sikhs was gravely insufficient and eyewash because the commission did not look into killings of Sikhs that took place outside Delhi”, added attorney Pannun.

According to Karnail Singh Peermohammad scores of Sikhs living in the village were burnt to death on November 02, 1984 and the Police neither identified the dead nor investigated the killing of Sikhs. According to the FIR filed by Ghanpat Singh Sarpanch and other eyewitnesses, the Sikh population of the village was attacked on November 02, 1984 by a group of about 500 people who came in Trucks and were armed. The group was shouting “Ye Sardar Ghaddar hain, Inn ko khatam karain ge” (These Sardars are traitors and we will wipe them out).

Echoing a shock felt by numerous international human rights organizations and activists, Jatinder Singh of Sikhs For Justice added “It is unthinkable the way in which these Sikhs must have been systematically targeted and subjected to the most gruesome methods of mass killing known to humankind. It is horrifying to think that these murders took place with state complicity through carefully orchestrated genocidal acts by armed groups of Indian men, transported from village to village by the state.” Adding to this shock, Jatinder Singh also cited that, “An entire village ethnically cleansed of a religious minority is the gravest violation of human rights and the most clearest proof of the Sikh Genocide. The innocent families of Hondh-Chillar village, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters were all exterminated simply because of their religious beliefs differed from the majority of India.”.

In addition to the statements made by AISSF and SFJ, researchers have brought forth information that on November 02, 1984 attackers surrounded Sikh houses and attacked by throwing petrol bombs into Sikh homes. Men and children were beaten and thrown into the burning houses and women were first raped and then thrown into the fire. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib was also desecrated and Gurudwara was put on fire as indication of the murderous rage of the mob, looking to destroy any and all traces of Sikh identity.

In light of the recent discovery, AISSF and Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) will approach United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and South Asian Human Rights Commission to visit the site of Sikh Mass Graves in village Hondh-Chillar and investigate the attack on Sikhs that took place throughout India in November 1984.

 

Lobbying - an ethical procedure?

Lobbying is essential in influencing government regulations.

Ethical lobbying includes principles such as keeping information open to the public, ensuring the public can get their views across, transparency and making sure that all parties involved are aware of any changes in order to be able to make their views known and have easy access. Transparency is not always evident and lobbying is not always open about its means or even about the clients involved or the interests that it is working for. Lobbying can only be considered as ethical if there is respect evident for those involved and the surrounding environment.

Zetter (2008) states the case for lobbying by putting across points such as lobbyists being able to counter balance the inbuilt advantages of governments and that lobbyists can help to stop bad laws being passed by letting MP’s know of any potential problems. Certain actions can be seen as ethical if kept under control for example forming a large group and protesting in the streets can turn into unethical behaviour. Concerns for lobbying include deception and manipulation therefore the lobbyists involved should have moral values in place and know exactly what they want to achieve from it and what boundaries cannot be crossed. Bribery is one action considered very unethical and it has been found that some lobbyists use their power to influence government decisions, also proving to be unethical as smaller businesses may not have this amount of power and therefore this creates a sense of unfairness.

Conflicts of interest must be avoided and financing for the campaign must be done so through government operations. Lobbying should be honest and posses shared moral values for those around and who may be affected. Businesses should have a sense of social responsibility and know what the desired outcome is. The government have placed legislations in place for lobbying which will prove very successful in keeping lobbying as an ethical act for all.

Grunig - A Theorist For Excellence?

The excellence theory is a general theory of public relations which was the outcome of a study carried out by J.E Grunig, L.A Grunig and Dozier et al, which lasted 15 years in order to determine the exact characteristics needed in order to ensure there is excellent communication within companies. This study, known as the excellence study, was funded by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC).

The excellence theory bought together various middle range theories including theories of publics, diversity, power, models of pr, roles, employee communication, power, gender, diversity, activism, ethics and social responsibility in order to produce one general theory which focused upon the role of pr in strategic management and the value of relationships with strategic publics to an organisation.

Pr excellence is seen to be rooted in stakeholder theory, which defines success of an organization through how it manages the demands of numerous stakeholders and the relationships that surround these. The stakeholder theory helps define one of the main points of the excellence theory which is  that organizations need to work and behave in such ways that solve problems as well as satisfying goals of both management and stakeholders. This type of excellence is based within two way symmetrical communication in which, a mutual understanding is found by the organization and its publics as problems are resolved and negotiated therefore creating a strong, long term relationship  between the two based on interaction, leading to success. An organisation with excellent pr will also demonstrate factors such as internal communication leading to an increase in employee satisfaction, women being valued as much as men for a strategic role and greater ethnic diversity being evident.

Excellent public relations is managerial, strategic, symmetrical, diverse, ethical and global. But, how many organizations today actually carry out Grunigs theory of excellent pr?

Public Relations and Marketing – A Significant Difference?

There is often a lot of confusion between the difference between pr and marketing and people seem to assume that they are the same thing, however they carry out different roles towards a company.

Pr focuses on relationships and building them whereas marketing focuses on selling, driven by the consumer’s wants and needs. Pr is about the reputation of a company or product whereas marketing is about changing behaviour.

These two functions may be different but they work very well alongside each other and create success through the strong relationship that they have once integrated, as it is easy to achieve a marketing aim such as changing behaviours if you have a strong reputation due to pr.

Pr involves all forms of communication inwards and out, whereas marketing only sends out messages. Two way communication, first established by Gruing and Hunt 1984, is evident between pr and its publics. This two way communication ensures the feedback of its publics tackling any problems or misunderstandings. Marketing responds to this feedback and to the changing trends within society and requires the needs and wants of consumers in order to carry out marketing that is successful. Both pr and marketing have similar outcomes therefore leaving the differences hard to define, as pr can be seen to be just one of the aspects under marketing communications.  Marketing and pr can work alongside one another in order to keep the product or service in the right light in the eyes of its audience. For example, if a product has been targeted and received bad publicity, marketing would focus on increasing sales through methods such as those displayed in Ansoffs matrix of finding a new target audience whilst pr would focus on restoring the products reputation through methods such re branding the image and creating new relationships. This is a classic example of how the two functions can work together in order to generate sales and restore reputation.

 Both functions can be seen as complimenting one another rather than strategies which are in competition.

A Promising Start to PR

Four weeks of placement over, now back to lectures and library visits. It will be hard to get back into the ‘student life’ even just after a month of full time work, work which I absolutely loved as it opened up my eyes to the whole pr world out there and various paths that I can take. I went into my placement at The Encore Organisation based in Syston with limited skills that I had learnt in the three months at uni, I can happily say that I have left my placement with key skills and extended knowledge on how to carry out certain tasks within the pr workplace.

I extremely enjoyed my placement and feel that I have befitted a great deal from it. As soon as my first full time working day was over I knew that the rest of the weeks were going to go fast and I would have to make the most of every minute there. The environment I was working in was great with highly friendly atmosphere at all times hence why I enjoyed this placement a lot. Whenever I found it difficult completing a piece of work, help was at right hand.

Examples of the work I carried out was producing copies for website, brochures and newsletters, press releases, pr proposals, promotional ideas and many more. I absolutely took pleasure in working alongside the whole team at Encore and would defiantly recommend this company to future DMU students as I can promise it will be very worthwhile. I will miss working full time as a pr assistant, however haven’t got long until I’m out in the real world again and this time working for real!

The Race For Tweets!

The tweeting nation were shocked last Sunday as they were witnessing racist tweets from the Grime artist, Wiley, towards the whole Asian community! What started off as a personal argument against the singer Jay Sean turned into twitter madness as more and more tweeters witnessed these tweets and started to get involved, sending the Grime artist tweets back in their defence.

Twitter being the starting point, this news reached other social networking sites such as Facebook within minutes of the first couple of tweets being published, with many being retweeted and statuses changed in regards to the quarrel. It had changed from an argument between two musical artists to one person against a whole community.

The tweeting squabble was followed up by a radio interview the next day, on Bobby Frictions show on the BBC Asian Network...where Wiley was present in order to put forward his arguments as to why he had started sending racist remarks in the first place. In his defence, he said that the argument was between him and Jay Sean and their musical differences and he was then targeted by Jay Sean fans.  Wiley threatened to ‘slap a turbin’ off of a Sikh tweeter and to ‘smash up all the corner shops’ in the stereotypical view that all Asians in Britain own corner shops.

Some tweeters believe that it may be a publicity stunt as both artists are due to release new singles and therefore in order to generate a ‘hype’ about each and to reach a wide audience, the artists turned to the most effective method: the world of social networking.

How Much Are Your Facebook Friends Worth?

Friends are very important, they help you through the bad and the good, they create lifetime memories but how much are your Facebook friends worth to you? One New Yorker, aged 39 launched a legal claim worth £315,000 against this networking site claiming that due to Facebook he has lost all of his friends.

The New Yorker used the networking site in order to keep in contact with all of his friends and family from back home in Albania for the past three years. One day, without the occurrence of any incident his account was ‘disbaled’ without prior warning. Access to photos had also been lost leaving this New Yorker with no personal memories or methods of contacting his extending family in Montenegro. He also claims that no violation or rules were broken by him so denied access is the fault of the site. After many tries of phoning and writing to the Facebook team, he states that he was not answered or helped and therefore feels it is in his rights to fight for justice and claim compensation...of over £300,000...easy money hey?!