UN hears account of Sudan killings from C4 journalist

A freelance journalist’s report on conflict in Sudan for Channel 4 News could be responsible for a change in UN policy towards the region.

Phil Cox, a journalist and filmmaker with special knowledge of the conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, was asked to appear before UK and European government bodies as well as the UN, to enable them to help bring an end to killings. He was called on after Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury mentioned his report during a session in the House of Lords.

Lord Avebury asked the UK Government whether it would call the attention of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the allegations made in the film shown on Channel Four on 18 February about attacks by Sudanese armed forces on civilians in Darfur.

He also asked whether it would ask the High Commissioner to send a special representative to the region, “if necessary, without the approval of the authorities in Khartoum”, to interview eyewitnesses and record evidence of ethnic cleansing.

Cox, who filmed a report on the conflict for Channel 4 News last month alleging genocide was taking place in Darfur, met with the United Nations Committee for Human Rights in Geneva, and MEPs at the European Parliament in Brussels, to show them his footage and give testimony to the killings in Darfur.

Cox told Press Gazette he was pleased that “journalism that meant something” was getting the level of attention that could change the situation in Sudan.