You have probably noticed my frenetic and uncharacteristic appeals for donations across social media. This has been an experiment as to whether genuinely independent reporting from a colonialist war zone is possible, and the answer may be “No”. I want to explain the costs to you.
Leaving aside for a paragraph or two the costs of cinematographer Niels Ladefoged and myself getting here and living here, let me tell you about the cost just of the 5-minute piece I did from the Syrian/Lebanese border.
After obtaining our general permits to report from the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Defence and other sources, we cannot just go and film anywhere. Almost everywhere we might want to film (including everywhere we have filmed so far) requires specific individual permission and clearance from both the same and other authorities, at both the national and local level.
It is just not practical to get these permissions ourselves. They require a network of contacts we just do not have, the ability to get heard in a very bureaucratic system, and at a basic level, language skills. If we tried to do it ourselves it would take weeks to do one day’s shooting.
A highly evolved system of “fixers” has grown up in Lebanon, of people who set these things up for visiting news teams. They are a world in themselves with a definite hierarchy. They also generally work for organisations like the New York Times or the BBC who are not really counting the pennies. Foreigners like us cannot avoid it. Perhaps if we were here for a couple of years we could bypass this system, but we learnt quickly and painfully that we cannot at present.
Other essentials that you need for a shoot like that one at the border – vehicle, driver, and interpreter – come as part of a package from the fixers. It is not really possible to separate this package out, as the driver is an essential cog in the functioning of the system of permissions – he knows who has the list that you are on locally.
So to get out to the border and do that shoot cost us about $700 plus consumables – petrol, food etc. I do think it was worth it:
We have produced a stream of such short reports, plus written articles, as well as a constant social media output on X/Twitter. We have been receiving millions of views even for some individual videos.
We are also producing mini-documentaries. We have done three so far. These not only involve more than one day shooting – each about $700 – but also proper editing and post-production, with sound, colour grading etc. For that we are using a local post-production studio. The upside is of course that all these costs represent employment for local people.
A beautifully made, thoughtful and very moving film from Craig Murray and his team. The BBC ought to have made this and I wish they had. https://t.co/zeo0wNuzbJ
— Peter Oborne (@OborneTweets) December 7, 2024
I haven’t got the bill for that one yet, but post-production on our first mini-documentary on refugees is in the region of $7,000. If the BBC had made the above item, their overall costs would have been ten times this or more.
In addition to which we have the costs of just being here, with all our equipment. We stayed in a hotel, then in two Airbnbs. This is a rough breakdown of everything so far:
Airfares $2,860 (we have expensive open returns in case of having to get out quickly!)
Hotel $2,320
Airbnb 1 $2,140
Airbnb 2 $1,280 (paid till 18 Dec)
Subsistence 43 days x $50 each $4,300
Locally purchased equipment $280
Casual Transport $420
Casual interpretation $160
“Fixer” services $4,800
including transport, interpretation and permits
Post-production costs (estimate) $15,000
Actual spend so far: USD 33,560
That is about £26,400
This is without adding any actual income for Niels. And assuming the blog subscriptions give me just my normal income for doing this work (but see below).
Against this we have received so far approximately £21,500. I had diversified the fundraising streams specifically for this trip, though partly in response to long term demands from readers for more options.
We have received £14,849 from the GoFundMe we set up (which finally GoFundMe have agreed to release to us), and about £6,700 in total from other donation options in this period. There are also new subscriptions to my work which will bring in about £4,000 a year so long as they are maintained, but obviously this is longer-term income.
So at the moment we are about £5,000 out of pocket. I had hoped that this would improve but, contrary to expectations, the more work we have produced, the less donations have been coming in.
Many people producing “independent journalism” from war zones are in fact receiving some benefit from a party – it may be accommodation or transport or logistics. We are genuinely independent. Nor do we have any backing from any apparently benign foundation or fund.
Perhaps this is a foolish, Quixotic quest and it is not possible to do alternative media with my approach from a war zone. In which case we will have to give up and come home. That would be a pity. The genocide in Gaza is not stopping and even this moment Israeli drones circle above us here – the USA and Israel are plunging this region further into chaos.
I am not asking those who have so kindly supported to give more. I very, very definitely do not want anybody to support if it causes them the slightest financial hardship, and I know things are difficult. But if you have not done so, and you can help, or if you can bring this to the attention of others who might help, I should be grateful.
Thank you.
———————————
My reporting and advocacy work has no source of finance at all other than your contributions to keep us going. We get nothing from any state nor any billionaire.
Anybody is welcome to republish and reuse, including in translation.
Because some people wish an alternative to PayPal, I have set up new methods of payment including a GoFundMe appeal and a Patreon account.
I have now also started a Substack account if you wish to subscribe that way. The content will be the same as you get on this blog. Substack has the advantage of overcoming social media suppression by emailing you direct every time I post. You can if you wish subscribe free to Substack and use the email notifications as a trigger to come for this blog and read the articles for free. I am determined to maintain free access for those who cannot afford a subscription.
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Dear Craig,
I very much admire your work, writings, passion, and bravery; and I abhor the cruel and depraved actions of Israel, facilitated by the USA/UK etc etc.
I donate to other pro-Palestinian causes; but I am somewhat cautious as to whether I can actually afford these payments!
However, before you actually leave Lebanon, due to lack of funds, please feel free to contact me; and I will see what further amount I might be able to send you.
From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
Warmest best wishes from Simon
It is very revealing that when you take the trouble and make the effort, despite all of the obstacles and dangers, that in talking to local people and observing what is happening around them, you can tell a very different, and far more illuminating tale than anything we can read in the great majority of our media.
I applaud your efforts to do so, Craig, and in doing so exposing the appallingly thin, diversionary and misleading impressions we are drip fed from the ‘masters of war’ which garnish our increasingly disjointed, distorted views of the world outside of our own experience. Just doing what you are brings a very welcome dose of reality to the interminable pseudo arguments and position-taking of the vast majority of opinion=makers who thrive in the world the tech bros and their associates are building around us.
Of course, i hope that donations will increase, and i will do my best to help – maybe just detailing the costs will help people understand the immense difficulty of this very important project of yours, while also underlining its critical importance. Once again, whether in court, or on the front lines, you prove the simple expedient of simply being there and giving an honest account of your experiences is invaluable and a very important recording of what is going on, while also bringing home to us how poorly served we are by the official channels.
Substack is a good move, I think, and i hope it helps spread the word.
Dear Craig, I thought the long post you made on your entry to Lebanon was the best piece of journalism that I’ve read in years. I’ve been following your work since you began covering the plight of Julian Assange and I’ve probably read everything that you’ve produced over the past 5 years. Even when I disagree with you, I often see merit in your well-informed point-of-view. When I’ve been able I’ve made modest contributions. In summary I think it’s fair to say that I’m a fan of your work and value your talents very highly.
So, and please don’t take offense at this, video is not your medium. I watched the video that you made and most of those you have made since I first became aware of your work and although the content is often strong, video is simply not your medium.
I understand that you need to capture life on the ground and to show people what’s going on, but you need to find a presenter other than yourself.
You have more than done your bit already, helping initiate the historic genocide case at the Hague and providing brilliant analysis from a variety of locations across Europe. The short documentaries have all been great and have further underlined your commitment to truth and justice in the middle east. Now, however, you are at risk not only from Zionists above any law but also from fanatically anti-Christian takfiris from China and God knows where else. They also have no boundaries to their depravity. The risk to your life far outweighs whatever more you might potentially expose in lands that are going to be overrun by demons for many years to come. I would be relieved if you were to announce you are returning home due to insufficient funds. We also need your thoughts on the genocidal criminals who rule us and are behind it all.
I’ll just leave this here.
Tariq Ali, what is your attitude when dictators are toppled in Iraq, Libya and now Syria?
There is no cause for celebration when these acts are carried out by Western imperialisms under the leadership of the United States.When they are toppled by their own people I celebrate. The West removes the people it doesn’t like at a particular moment. Saddam of Iraq was a hero when he acted for the US and started a war with Iran. He became a ‘Hitler’ only when he invaded Kuwait imagining he had a green light from the US. Then after 9/11 they finished off him and a million other Iraqis. Five million orphans. Then they lynched Saddam,. Cause for celebration? I wrote against him produced a documentary mocking him when he was alive. In Libya NATO killed over 30,000 Libyans to push through regime change and lynch Ghaddafi. ‘We came, we saw, he died’ was Hilary Clinton’s celebration. French and British politicians took money from him. The LSE begged for a big donation and its professors wrote young Ghaddafi’s PhD for him. Lord Giddens compared his work to Tony Blair’s own great ideas. The same people supported NATO’s assault. I criticised him severely for many years. I did not celebrate his death. What is there to celebrate in the antics of Western imperialism. The same for Syria where an internal Ba’ath coup toppled Assad and they’re stitching up a deal with the US and Turkey. Iraq has not yet recovered. Libya is a wreck, ruled by rival jihadis. Syria has already been divided. The huge triumph of the West in the 90’s is still playing itself out. They are no longer ashamed of displaying their double standards as we observe in the Israeli genocide in Palestine, but NATO’s useful idiots in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin, adornments of the bourgeois media and their supporters in the barely existent left, still pretend that advances are being made. In one of his remarks on theatre, Brech stressed that he preferred to start withe new bad things not the old good ones. There are no longer any good ones left. Centuries before him, Spinoza who has just had his sentence of expulsion rescinded by the Synagogue in Amsterdam offered his own advice: ‘Neither to laugh nor to cry but to understand’. NATO liberals should reflect on it.
https://x.com/TariqAli_News/status/1867175002379808888
Funnily enough, I was going to ask for this post. I had wondered if, where contributors can see where their money is going, they’d be more likely to fork out.
But I also spot a moral bind. Here I am, someone in financial privilege, safety, and comfort. We should all be doing fundraising drives, or giving as much of our income to Palestine causes as we can manage, we should all be volunteering for Palestine Action. And yet we’re not; we’re going to cafes, and commenting on the quality of the coffee, and watching a movie on the telly, or surviving the Christmas bustle in the shops. What the fuck is wrong with us? The people of Gaza need us, and we know they need us, because this genocide has been live-streamed from the start. We might be excused from ignoring, say, the plight of people in Somalia, because we don’t see daily images of their death and injury in our social-media feeds (though, of course, they deserve our support as well).
So we have no excuse. How did the establishment do this to us? Why are we so numb? Maybe each of us is angry but powerless, and so we assume we can’t do anything. Every well-meaning liberal I know shakes their head, and gets on with their day. Not one of them will have dug their hand into their pocket for any decent anti-imperialist cause, because they have their eye on a nicer car. Maybe it’s just Not My Problem Mate.
I’ll happily contribute again, I can afford to. But Craig and Niels would do much, much better if everyone watching a documentary gave a pound. Ho hum.
Spot on post Jon at 12:59 12 December 2024.
That’s £30 in for my old Dundee University contemporary 😁👍
I can’t get in Anywhere to Donate.. Tried credit card too..Nothing happens.
Hi Bria. Hope you are well enough to use the Nat west bank to donate. Works for me
Can you set up cryptocurrency addresses specifically for the journalism project in Lebanon?
From prior comments here I understand those wallets are earmarked for unexpected legal bills.
Similarly, I was puzzled that the PayPal donation button leads to the “Craig Murray Defence Fund” (CMDF1). The name makes it look as if the fund is only for paying legal bills. I guessed this was not significant, and donated anyway; but it almost put me off. It seems not unlikely that others might actually have been put off from donating in this way.
Sponsorship, to a degree, would make more sense, iff, you could guarantee editorial independence. Of course you then open yourselves up to the trolls for taking money from x, y or z.
Anyway, I shall place some dosh your way – keep up the good work, and don’t neglect your family.
Very much appreciate your bravery and intelligent reporting at this awful time. We certainly cannot rely on the BBC or, indeed, any of the press, to bring us the facts of what’s really going on.
Thank you and apologies for the small donation. Inflation has significantly eaten into my pension but I’m happy to make occasional contributions as and when I can.
Now is not the time to remain silent so thank you and your colleagues.
Donation upcoming. BUT the biggest single itemised cost in your breakdown is the post-production work by a local studio. I’d say, forget that high-end glossy look for future shorts. Forget colour grading, background music and all that MSM glitziness. A raw scuzzy look is much more authentic and real imho. And suddenly you’ve saved $15000 according to your own analysis. Not a small amount. Just saying…..
Yes I have a lot of sympathy for this and the quick, short pieces work on that basis.But the tarted up mini docs do get a wide reach and get a different reach; they get to those who trust things precisely because they have the MSM glitziness you describe. Which is not us. It helps get a new audience.
Since someone must play devil’s advocate…
If watching stuff on Youtube and Twitter undermined the rulers, the rulers wouldn’t allow it.
It’s like handing out a big packet of crisps and saying it’s nutritious, with a message inside saying support the Palestinians. Lots of people eat crisps.
Just bizarre. You have shown repeatedly that you have no red lines whatsoever when it comes to supporting the genocidal rulers of the United States.
Not sure why our host has chosen to publicly reveal that he’s forking out seven grand a pop for post-production on short sub-15-minute video packages*, TOG. Or the $50 a day for ‘subsistence’ (on top of accommodation) – I’d imagine that the vast majority of the million-plus internally displaced in Lebanon are currently subsisting on a lot less than that. Anyway, unlike you, rather than assisting him with his tonight-Matthew-I’m-going-to-be-an-anti-Zio-version-of-Simon-Sebag-Montefiore ‘glitziness’, in this season of supposed goodwill, I’m afraid I’ll be attempting to help a few of them out by making donations to one or two charitable causes which purport to render aid – though how much will eventually end up in any of their hands I don’t know.
* What’s the average wage in Lebanon? Around $2k a year? Amidst the devastation, it looks like Christmas/Winterval has come early for one or two people in Beirut. Colour-grading? Why doesn’t he go the whole hog and get someone in to do hair & make-up?
Your role as a critic of the views expressed on this blog is welcome, but this comment stinks of bad faith and plain nastiness.
Nobody honest would argue that 50 dollars per day – that is £13 per meal – is an excessive level of subsistence to live away from home in Lebanon. It is well less than half what any international organisation or NGO would give.
Your stupid argument that we are living better than refugees is just unpleasant. I am sure that your own lifestyle is better than the average person living in Sudan or Bangladesh. Your sudden conversion to world equality of income would be very impressive if it were in any sense honest, rather than just an attempt to discourage donations to this blog.
Equally, you have not the least idea what you are talking about if you think USD 7,000 is a lot of money for 15 minutes documentary post-production. This one https://youtu.be/rFfXwVPDXqE for example is cut from three hours of spontaneous and unscripted filming among refugees, 95% of it in Arabic.
I am asking the Mods to ban you for a month because of the obvious ill motivation of your comment. If you decide not to return afterwards, fine.
Maybe he should ditch the suit & tie, and instead wear a scruffy t-shirt, old jeans, trainers, and a backwards-facing baseball cap too?
Much cheaper and really “down with the kids” – bound to be taken more seriously.
Possibly a very good piece of advice. When you have cheaper looks, you usually also pay less for services. If you want to travel on a budget, another good option is to use someone local as a go-between whenever possible.
For instance, the outfit you describe matches with the ones Laith Marouf apparently favors. I wonder if he also pays 7,000 Dollars on post production for each short doc he makes for FPTV. But of course this is none of our business.
Those are good points Madison. The problem is that for the purposes of doing the work, the suit and tie sets me in the “This is Craig Murray he is an internationally known and well-connected person” category, whereas jeans and T-shirt would put me in the “Here is some backpack youtuber” category.
I wouldn’t have got the interviews or into the closed ruins at Baalbek, for example.
To be plain, the USD 15,000 in the above account is for three mini documentaries. The refugee one cost 7,000 in post-production because it was entirely spontaneous hours of filming among Arabic-speaking refugees, to be cut down to 15 minutes that tell a story.
The other two cost an average of 4,000 each because they were more easily structured and needed less interpretation.
Laith and I cooperate, and yes he faces many of the same costs. Less so because he is bilingual so does not need interpretation, while the talented Hadi Hoteit multi-tasks in many of the other roles. But Laith’s costs are not of a different order and he too needs donations.
I’ll stump up something shortly, but feel it necessary to say how impressed I am by the amount you’ve managed to cover on a remarkably tiny budget. It shows what can be done if there’s determination to do it, despite the endless protestations of MSM that they can’t afford investigative journalism. Sincere congratulations,
Jorge.
What’s the income from XTwitter [*], Google (Youtube) [*], Facebook [*]?
Note
*) All of which have long histories of working with US and Israeli military, intelligence, and other state services?
The income from Twitter is about £200. The income from the others is zero, because they suppress the material below the income-earning threshold.
I really appreciate your posts Craig, and have previously sent funds to support you.
I would also ask you to consider making a documentary with other critical thinkers, as this seems to be the most impactful medium these days.
Best wishes to you and Niels.
Scott
I could probably provide some financial support, but as a severely disabled person I am very anxious over money (probably excessively so). I am involved in my own very local campaign related to the iniquities of property speculation and all the scamster shysters that inhabit that dark world. This requires legal advice. I use ‘free advice’ as much as possible and try to mobilise support among neighbours and friends but we live in a country where dealers and dodgy operators are protected by the sheer inertia and monstrous cost of the legal system. Many iniquitous practices and injustices evade challenge due to the huge effort required and the complacency of a legislature unwilling to take risks or unable to muster the intellectual resources required to compose the various highly technical documents required.
It’s worth mentioning Andy Wightman’s book ‘The Poor had No Lawyers’ to capture and explain the pattern of land ownership in Scotland.
There is a strong element of quasi-feudalism and vested interests that still runs through Scottish society despite the appearance of progressive ‘noises off’.
Craig, your work is very important in providing an alternative to conventional print and TV media, and if push comes to shove I would try my best to give support.