Is This Where Redtop Has Been Hiding?

[reddevil]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,1...1458313,00.html

Sun reporter fails language test

Chris Tryhorn and Claire Cozens

Wednesday April 13, 2005

The Guardian

A Sun journalist's attempt to gain entry to Britain posing as an asylum seeker came a cropper when his language skills were found wanting.

The reporter, Brian Flynn, until recently the paper's New York correspondent, was questioned by immigration officers at Dover yesterday after claiming to be a Kosovan refugee.

When officers summoned an interpreter, Flynn's inability to speak either of the region's languages, Serbo-Croat or Albanian, were exposed.

"We can confirm that some journalist posing as a clandestine immigrant was stopped at Dover by immigration officers," a Home Office spokesman said. "He was questioned and subsequently released."

A spokeswoman for the Sun declined to comment.

In May 2003, another journalist at the paper, Oliver Harvey, successfully claimed benefits posing as an asylum seeker.

Harvey pretended to be a Moldovan journalist fleeing state oppression, using the name Anatoly Tal and "hamming up" an east European accent when meeting officials.

In the article, Harvey explained how he had avoided the trap into which Flynn fell two years later.

"I said I was an ethnic Russian whose mother tongue was Russian. My interviewer asked: "Do you need an interpreter?' I replied: "No, no. My English is very good. I have a degree in English and media." In fact, I was born in Hertfordshire and I don't speak a word of Russian."

Harvey added that his knowledge of Moldova was "based on five minutes' study on the internet".

[Slave to the rhythm]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,1...1458313,00.html

Sun reporter fails language test

Chris Tryhorn and Claire Cozens

Wednesday April 13, 2005

The Guardian

A Sun journalist's attempt to gain entry to Britain posing as an asylum seeker came a cropper when his language skills were found wanting.

The reporter, Brian Flynn, until recently the paper's New York correspondent, was questioned by immigration officers at Dover yesterday after claiming to be a Kosovan refugee.

When officers summoned an interpreter, Flynn's inability to speak either of the region's languages, Serbo-Croat or Albanian, were exposed.

"We can confirm that some journalist posing as a clandestine immigrant was stopped at Dover by immigration officers," a Home Office spokesman said. "He was questioned and subsequently released."

A spokeswoman for the Sun declined to comment.

In May 2003, another journalist at the paper, Oliver Harvey, successfully claimed benefits posing as an asylum seeker.

Harvey pretended to be a Moldovan journalist fleeing state oppression, using the name Anatoly Tal and "hamming up" an east European accent when meeting officials.

In the article, Harvey explained how he had avoided the trap into which Flynn fell two years later.

"I said I was an ethnic Russian whose mother tongue was Russian. My interviewer asked: "Do you need an interpreter?' I replied: "No, no. My English is very good. I have a degree in English and media." In fact, I was born in Hertfordshire and I don't speak a word of Russian."

Harvey added that his knowledge of Moldova was "based on five minutes' study on the internet".

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What a pathetic way to make a living. It's embarassing that a Sun journalist is a City fan.

[PhatWill]

What a pathetic way to make a living. It's embarassing that a Sun journalist is a City fan.

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For starters there's been more than one City fan who has been a journalist for the Sun over the years and I suspect there are many at other newspapers.

I fail to see why it is a 'pathetic way to make a living', what do you do for a living?