Talk:Hugh Sykes (journalist)

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Arts and Entertainment

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the arts and entertainment work group.

BBC Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject BBC, an attempt to better organise information in articles related to the BBC. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page where you can join us as a member. You can also visit the BBC Portal.BBCWikipedia:WikiProject BBCTemplate:WikiProject BBCBBC articles

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Tasks for WikiProject BBC:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : Improve BBC, BBC News (TV channel) and BBC News to Good Article status following previous reviews, create BBC Computer Literacy Project (in light of forthcoming 30th anniversary)
Cleanup : Chucklevision - references and general clean-up, Pebble Mill Studios - over-detailed and long, BBC World Service Television - unreferenced and confusing
Copyedit : BBC News, Broadcasting House
Expand : Top 20 start-class BBC articles with most importance: BBC Japan, BBC World Service Television, BBC Lifestyle, BBC Two Northern Ireland
NPOV : Criticism of the BBC (See comments)
Stubs : Stub-Class BBC articles
Other : *Restructure the category
- Add infoboxes to the BBC articles without infoboxes
- Add free-use images to biographical articles where possible
- Add references to Goa Mix (see assessment) and Coat of arms of the BBC
- Return Dad's Army to a Good article. (See comments)
- Reassess BBC following improvements to article.

Journalism Low‑importance

	Journalism portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Journalism, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of journalism on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.JournalismWikipedia:WikiProject JournalismTemplate:WikiProject JournalismJournalism articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Lies and Racism by Hugh Sykes

This "journalist" has spread racist and islamophobic lies to support an anti-Iran and anti-Islam bias. From Seyyed Mohammad Marandi:

One of the problems of having a sensible discussion about relations between the ‘West’ and Iran, as well as developments inside the country, is that western journalism is far from sensible. Iranian society is regularly depicted as abnormal and irrational, which itself helps reinforce the claim that Iran is a threat that cannot be dealt with through dialogue and reason. Recently, for example, Hugh Sykes of the BBC offered the report ‘Iranian women battle the system’ (BBC News September 5, 2008). Amidst the misleading statements he makes, which makes the report look like a propaganda piece, one is particularly notable. Not only is it completely untrue, but Sykes tries to convert that falsehood into a “fact” accepted throughout Iran. This is Sykes’ text:

"There is little protection against so-called ‘honour killings’ for women who are raped; a husband - or a father – who kills the rape victim may face only a short jail sentence.

“This is inhuman,” a law professor at Teheran University, Rosa Gharachorloo, told me.

Most of the people I have spoken to here agree: they believe rape victims should be comforted, not killed.

First, the University of Tehran does not have a law professor whose name is Rosa Gharachorloo. More important, however, is the fact that everyone, not almost everyone, that I know believes rape victims should be comforted, not killed and that is why such an ‘honour killings’ culture does not exist in Iran. Indeed, those who commit such a crime in Iran can expect to face capital punishment, while their victims can expect state support. Unfortunately, for Sykes, there is no known law in Iran that allows leniency for the murder of rape victims.

[to source]. I'm sure with a little effort you could figure out much more about this evil person.

Is Hugh Sykes related to famous Sykes'?

I see very little biographical detail in the Wikipedia entry for Hugh Sykes. In a recent BBC radio programme I heard the subject mention that they grew up in Iran as the son of a diplomat. Which made me wonder if Hugh was related to the more famous Sykes family (descended from Mark Sykes).