Corby made a dramatic return to Australia after spending nearly 10 years behind bars and three more on parole in Bali. It is believed the yer-old left the airport in one of 12 black vehicles which left the international terminal in separate directions - sending media on a wild goose-chase through the streets of Brisbane.
But she said some passengers on the flight were frustrated when airline staff blocked the rest of the flight from disembarking. Ms Amies said Corby was not seen in the baggage hall, assuming she had been allowed through a VIP exit to avoid waiting media.
While she managed to sneak out of the airport unnoticed, a member of her security team read a statement on behalf of her family. Shortly after her departure, there were bizarre scenes as a small band of supporters started shouting that Corby had fooled the media 'twice in eight hours'. Corby was expected to land in Brisbane at 5.
Corby shared a picture of the view from her seat moments before taking off shortly after 10pm local time. The family then asked for privacy as the convicted drug smuggler tries to settle back into life in Queensland.
Her sister Mercedes is pictured arriving at their mother's Loganlea house shortly after their plane landed in Brisbane. There was still no sign of year-old Schapelle as her sister Mercedes pictured arrived at the family home. Mercedes did not speak to the media when she arrived with a security guard at Rosleigh Rose's home just before 7.
Corby's sister Mercedes was seen entering their mother's Loganlea house shortly after their arrival, but there was still no sign of Schapelle.
The RACQ was called to the fibro two-storey home at about 9. Once the car was revved up about 15 minutes later, four friends - seemingly amused by the media pack - drove off in the blue Ford Territory. A man in a bizarre horror mask peeked his head out of the door as they left. A man in a bizarre horror mask pictured peeked his head out of the door as the four friends left the house.
The RACQ arrived at the fibro two-storey about 9. Mercedes is seen arriving at her mother's home in Brisbane's south shortly after she and her sister returned from Indonesia. An unknown visitor at Corby's mother's home is seen bringing a bunch of flowers to the property in Brisbane's south. In what was perhaps another decoy tactic, a woman bearing a striking resemblance to Corby appeared at Mercedes' Gold Coast home just after 9am.
The woman wore a large black hooded jacket, smiling as she entered a car in the driveway - though it is not believed it was Corby. Earlier, the year-old was escorted to Ngurah Rai International Airport in a police convoy after signing release papers signalling her freedom during the final visit to the parole office in Denpasar earlier on Saturday.
Just after 10pm local time on Saturday, she posted a photo on Instagram with just one word - 'boarded'. Schapelle Corby's emergency passport is pictured as she boards a flight home almost 13 years after her arrest. Although her Virgin Australia boarding pass had been issued, showing she had a seat in business class, Corby's sister Mercedes later revealed that the pair had instead opted to fly Malindo Air. Despite shielding her face from the cameras and citing security concerns because of the strong media presence throughout her journey home, Corby couldn't help updating her 65, new Instagram followers with pictures and videos from her trip.
Corby's boarding pass pictured for the Mercedes Corby shared a picture revealing she and her sister had switched flights last minute to fly using a budget airline. Schapelle Corby and her sister Mercedes are seen going through a security screening at Denpasar Airport on Saturday. Schapelle Corby left shared a selfie with her sister Mercedes, writing: 'Almost at the airport.. At her final stop in Bali, two vans filled with police turned up only to roll away with no Corby in tow, sending media scampering.
Nor have they considered the physical aspect of suffering severe mental illness in that environment. That she is childlike and totally exposed to criminal exploiters and others.
About how she struggles to look after herself. What her sister sometimes has to do for her, to function as a human being. How she is defenceless, and how she treated every day of every week in what is already a frightening and terrible place. People really should think about these things. If they did, and understood what is now shocking cruelty, they would weep, as I do. Bewildered, confused, but keeping faith in humanity and clinging desperately to past memories and the love of her family.
But year after year it has become harder and harder, as her mental strength has been worn down. Freedom is so far away that it is not even on the radar, yet she has been in the squalid overcrowded unbearable heat of that cell for what will seem like an absolute eternity. Over the years, there must have been many times when Mercedes felt totally isolated and desperate, as she struggled valiantly for her sister's life.
The courage she has demonstrated in sustaining her efforts is very well illustrated by the following article, which was provided by the People For Schapelle Corby group. Email This BlogThis! The Expendable Project. They worked tirelessly to create a barrier between the public, and the innocent woman left stranded in a hell hole. One tried and tested tactic was to character assassinate her loved ones. None more so than her beloved sister, Mercedes.
What the media created in the public psyche was a soap character, moulded to suit their hostile agenda. The truth about Mercedes, however, is the exact opposite of this shameful creation. The extracts below are from a single article from a few years ago. Here, the year-old talks about a happy childhood, the day of her sister's arrest and the hell that followed. Before Schapelle was arrested in Bali two-and- a-half years ago, I enjoyed a happy life.
Then, my carefree life vanished into yesterday. Never could I have imagined the pain and turmoil that would come to fill the daily lives of my whole family. Until I was 10, I had just two siblings — Schapelle and Michael. We had a tight bond, with only a year between each of us. Schapelle and I were best friends, sharing a bedroom, friends and clothes. We did everything together. We could spend hours sitting in the grass making daisy chains or putting together dance routines.
Despite the age gap, we were also very close to our three younger siblings. Our home was full of people, fun and laughter. As teenagers, Schapelle, Michael and I got hooked on surfing.
We joined a local Gold Coast Surf Club and spent our weekends patrolling the beaches and hitting the surf. My close school friends were also in the club. We had a lot of great times. We competed against other clubs, with my team often making the state finals. She worked two or three factory jobs to pay for nice clothes, holidays and after-school classes. Schapelle and I also did ballet lessons for about 10 years.
Although I was a bit of a tomboy, I loved dancing, concerts and costumes. I saved most of my costumes to pass onto my daughter, Nyeleigh, who now does ballet in Bali. They effectively signed on for this, with eyes open, when they entered politics. But Schapelle Corby? A young woman, subjected to a series of legal and human rights abuses, and struggling daily just to survive in barely imaginable conditions?
Why would the ABC place her image there, other than to signal that it is somehow politically correct and socially acceptable to malign her and her family with the same brand of humour as Bush and Howard? Some might even suggest that Bush and Howard are largely discredited and even depicted as "bad guys" with similar connotations for Schapelle Corby by association.
It is extremely hard to find any sort of justification or rationale for this crude example of image placement which does not involve the play of negative influence on the public at large. But it is actually the tip of a very large and disturbing iceberg. The output can range from simple political spin, to sophisticated censorship and message delivery manipulation.
With respect to those individual citizens targeted by states in order to support an underlying political imperative, additional possibilities emerge, which embrace insidious and direct character assassination, false allegation, and relative news positioning.
They have pitched a variety of high profile broadcasts against Schapelle Corby's interests, and those of her family, engaging in some of the most damaging of the false allegations and smears. This has been presented on a systematic basis, over a period of years.
To illustrate that this campaign is still current, in the first part of this series we cited a recent example of apparent censorship. But their long term coverage and non-coverage of Schapelle Corby news is actually littered with serious issues and hugely damaging innuendo. Certain employees of the ABC seem to have excelled in this type of grossly unethical activity. A simple illustrative example of such an ABC smear? Perhaps that of August , when ABC produced a headline report " Corby's dad linked to drug trad e", courtesy of its Lateline broadcast.
It presented smear after smear, via scurrilous statements such as " Together, the father Michael Corby senior and his daughter Schapelle Corby represent 30 years in the marijuana business " and " his long drug career, Michael Corby senior avoided going to jail ". Clearly, the significant damage which this caused was not just at point and time of the broadcast itself, but was ongoing, as the seeds had been sown.
The subsequent tiny apology on their website " Lateline apologises for a story aired last month with evidence suggesting that Schapelle Corby's father, the Late Michael Corby Senior was involved in the drug trade. I am sure that all ethical journalists will be appalled by this, especially bearing in mind the high profile nature of the original broadcast, and the fact that the ABC will surely have been well aware of the damaging nature of such smears for the very real prospects of Ms Corby.
Unsubstantiated innuendo of a similar nature had been made many times previously, and even, incredibly, whilst Schapelle Corby was in legal process with respect to her appeal.
Again, these are matters we will cover in greater depth in future articles, but in truth they are readily available for readers to research for themselves. Our own opinion on the degree of alignment and correlation of all this with the three part opinion management model cited at the start of this article is not material: the information produced above largely speaks for itself.
However, the underlying issues discussed should concern everyone: not only ethical journalists. As grave and unacceptable as they are with respect to Schapelle Corby, the implications are actually even wider.
If the ABC is as intrinsic to the state apparatus as the above data suggests, then what other issues are they influencing? In an ordered world, one might imagine that a state owned broadcasting corporation may uphold a higher level of reporting ethos and journalism with respect to the Schapelle Corby case than some of the other media organizations. Equally, its position within the structural fabric of Australian society might lead one to believe that the corporation would be sensitive to the need to ensure balance and transparency with respect to stories with complex political and social implications.
However, not only is this demonstrably not the case, but due to its consistent and long term adherence to an extremely controversial government position, it is also at risk of being perceived as an organ of state by increasing numbers. This apparent lack of independence clearly has some potential to embarrass both the ABC and the Australian government internationally.
It could also fuel increasing distrust from the general public if and when the detailed pattern of events becomes more widely known. THE STORY The main chapters of this part of the story began to unfold when AFP Commissioner Keelty, backed up by the 'Minister for Justice and Customs' Ellison, made a number of public utterances which can only have been damaging to the welfare of Schapelle Corby, and simultaneously music to the ears of an Indonesian regime and judicial system which will no doubt have been delighted to interpret them as a "do as you want with her" signal.
Signal is a word of choice here, because indications of position do not require formal, contractual or explicit words. Certainly the President of Law Council of Australia received the signal clearly enough, stating that " It is potentially damaging to the Corby defence, as it will no doubt be transmitted to Bali ".
Schapelle Corby's lawyer also received it, calling it " an absolute disgrace ". The same signal will have been received all too clearly by the Indonesians.
The question of why those parties were actually making such startling and hugely damaging comments regarding Schapelle Corby, one of their own citizens, is outside the scope of this project. The most commonly suggested reason however is that the government was desperate to protect its strategic relationship with Indonesia, and the Corby case was causing significant issues stemming from public opinion. In terms of international politics there is no doubt at all that the relationship with Indonesia was, and is, far more important to them than Schapelle Corby's interests or human rights.
Of course, words expressed through government, or state agencies, also send signals to those within its own national borders. In this case, signals are received by both the population and the media, and in the case of the latter, by everyone from journalists and editors, to proprietors.
Note also that with respect to the ABC and the media, a number of private channels of communication are also available. The script which followed this crude intervention is visible to all. The very existence of this investigative project is a direct result of what occurred in the subsequent months and years. The ABC was as enthusiastically loyal to the message apparently supplied by government as any other mainstream player.
Indeed, the ABC was actually responsible for some of the most damaging of the false allegations and proven smears. The broadcasts were clearly having a major impact upon public perception of the case. A range of specific examples of these false allegations, proven smears, and patent censorship of positive or supportive Schapelle Corby news will be exposed by our forthcoming series of articles on the ABC, as will details of our research into the activities of particular journalists and employees.
Note that similar JournOz initiatives are also underway with respect to the other Australian mainstream media organs involved. This was in fact an historical event, from a number of perspectives: 1.
It was the first ever global protest in support of an Australian in the entire history of the nation 2. The accompanying video had been described as "ground breaking" and "landmark" by European critics 3. It was the first "cyber-driven" protest to end at the United Nations in the history of the world, as far as we have been able to establish 4. Now, even a schoolboy journalist can see the possibilities here for all sorts of compelling stories.
The story practically writes itself in a multitude of ways, and would clearly stimulate public interest. Yet the ABC didn't cover it at all, and nor did any other mainstream organ. Before we look further at the ABC though, we should view the video which was produced prior to the emergence of the United Nations development: That was made before the UN news broke.
0コメント