Spirit Level Film has produced a series of interviews about prominent politicians and their leadership qualities entitled The Price of Kings. It has already completed films on Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.
Richard Symons, the firm’s founder and director, wants to make Taylor the subject of his next documentary. “It’s very easy to be seduced into thinking this is about a convicted war criminal, but it’s about access to information that is of value to the public.
It’s about what is in the best interest of a democracy, in learning about the quality of the leader we should be looking for. It’s about access to knowledge and whether we deem that to be of public interest or not.” In a letter to the MoJ, lawyers for Spirit Level say that other leaders, including Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin, had agreed to participate in future films. “Face-to-face interviews are a crucial element of the films, as the demeanour of the leader under questioning reveals characteristics which can otherwise be missed. The purpose of the films is to allow the viewers to learn about how power works and how it goes wrong,” the letter explains.
It points to the complexity of Taylor’s electoral appeal, citing his 1997 campaign under the slogan ‘He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him’. The election was overseen by the UN and resulted in him winning a landslide victory.
Symons said: “We want to educate the public about the qualities of leadership, how character traits feed into decisions.”
Gavin Millar QC, who is considering a legal challenge of the MoJ’s refusal on Spirit Level’s behalf, said: “Albert Speer [Hitler’s armaments minister] gave a lot of time to talk to journalists such as Gitta Sereny [for her biography of him]. In the modern era we would expect a camera to be there. It’s a speaking record. Taylor did give evidence at his trial, but this would be in a different context.”
The MoJ, however, rejected the film-makers’ arguments. In its letter, it states that regulations do not “contemplate that visits will be permitted solely to enable prisoners to contribute to political or general debates”.
It continues: “There would be a high level of distress and anger from victims [or relatives of victims] of his crimes if the interview were … broadcast.”
Filmed prison interviews have been permitted before. Following a protracted court case, the BBC was allowed in 2012 to interview Babar Ahmad, a terrorism suspect who at that stage had been held in prison for seven years without trial and was facing extradition to the US.
The application to interview Taylor has also focused attention on the detention conditions of the former African leader, who has applied to be transferred from Frankland prison in Durham to Rwanda so he can serve his sentence closer to his home and family. Other defendants convicted by the Sierra Leone tribunal are serving their sentences in Rwanda.
John Jones QC, Taylor’s lawyer, confirmed that his client had agreed to be interviewed after Spirit Level Film approached him. It was not, he added, “something he had actively sought out”.
Tamsin Allen, Spirit Level Film’s solicitor, said: “It can’t be that interviews are only allowed when prisoners are raising allegations of miscarriages of justice. There’s provision in the MoJ’s own policy documents for other public interest reasons. There’s also an obligation under Article 10 [of the European convention on human rights] to allow freedom of expression.”
A spokesperson for the MoJ said: “We have received the application and it was considered in accordance with the relevant prison service policy. It is not appropriate to comment further at this stage.”
According to MoJ policy, journalists may have access to prisoners on only two grounds: either if it relates to highlighting an alleged miscarriage of justice, or if “there is some other sufficiently strong public interest in the issue sought to be raised during the visit and the assistance of that journalist is needed”.
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