<\/p>\n
by Captain John Konrad<\/a> (gCaptain) In the fifteen years of running gCaptain, we have reached out to the International Maritime Organization (IMO<\/a>), \u00a0several times and even traveled to their beautiful London headquarters<\/a> to stop by (uninvited) and introduce ourselves. We have also offered to help report on their important issues. But we never really hear back from them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Being a maritime journalist isn\u2019t a glamorous job. We don\u2019t have teams of lawyers protecting us if we make mistakes. We don\u2019t have government salaries or benefits. We certainly don\u2019t have beautiful offices overlooking the Thames. But we do sleep well at night knowing we have done our best to report the facts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Last week the IMO issued a statement<\/a> saying \u201cIMO Secretariat has noted with concern recent factually inaccurate reporting in certain media outlets\u201d but did not mention who published factually inaccurate information or reach out to us for corrections. We can\u2019t even be certain they are talking about us except we are only aware of two publications that have been highly critical of the IMO\u2019s response to the MV Wakashio oil spill. gCaptain<\/a> and Forbes<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Is the IMO, a powerful international governance body with an over $50 million dollar annual budget<\/a>, using its considerable weight and taxpayer support to bully journalists who make less than $100,000 per year?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And who is making this statement? Who is the \u201cIMO Secretariat\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0exactly? Is that a person? A horse<\/a>? A legal body within the IMO? Or is it the body itself? Did member states vote on this statement? \u00a0We don\u2019t know but a person familiar with the IMO has informed us that statements like these are typically approved by Fred Kenney, IMO\u2019s\u00a0Director, Legal and External Affairs<\/a>\u2026 which leads to the question of why the position of external affairs is held by a lawyer rather than a public relations expert?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We can not be certain that the IMO is talking about us be we are certain that the press release<\/a> and the Wakashio\u00a0FAQ<\/a> calling out journalists itself contains multiple accounts of false information. Let\u2019s look at just one. The one that is most obviously wrong.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In the FAQ the IMO writes:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So an investigation \u201cshould be initiated as soon as possible\u201d but Panama has only \u201cindicated its intention<\/strong><\/em> to proceed with an investigation\u201d. The MV Wakashipo ran aground on 25 July 2020 and this press release was issued on the 16 September 2020. That\u2019s fifty three days and still they only \u201cintend<\/strong><\/em>\u201d to investigate\u2026 they haven\u2019t actually started. \u00a0In that period of time a major piece of evidence, THE ENTIRE BOW OF THE SHIP<\/a>, has been lost to investigators.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And how about the IMO\u2019s mandate to \u201cunderstand why the incident occurred and so that\u00a0IMO can follow up\u00a0on any\u00a0recommendations\u201d. \u00a0Well, that\u2019s not correct either. According to several news reports<\/a> and a press statement<\/a> from Intercargo \u2013 an organization to which Wakashio\u2019s charterer, MOL, is a member \u2013 \u201cDuring the period 2009-2018, one hundred and 188 lives were lost as a result of 48 bulk carrier losses, however, investigation reports were only made available on the IMO\u2019s Global Integrated Shipping Information System for 27 of these casualties with the average reporting time being 34 months, which, in our strong opinion, is excessively long.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And what was the IMO\u2019s response to Intercargo\u2019s allegations about the IMO\u2019s \u201clack of reporting of very serious casualties\u201d? Well here\u2019s the press release headline<\/a> \u201c\u201cIntercargo applaud the IMO\u2019s intention<\/strong><\/em> to improve casualty investigation reporting\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There\u2019s that word again. Intend<\/strong><\/em>. Panama intends<\/strong><\/em> to investigate the Wakashio and the IMO intends<\/strong><\/em> to investigate why 161 very serious incident investigation reports are missing from its database.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here is the definition of the word \u201cintention\u201d by Webster<\/a>:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I will not say that a huge and powerful international body intended to bully and destroy the reputation of a small independent maritime news organization like gCaptain. No, the IMO\u2019s failure to contact us over the many years, failure to invite us to events, and their failure even once stop by offices to say hello (as we have visited them) proves they don\u2019t place any really IMPORTance or SIGNIFICANCE on us at all. Nor do they have any \u201cdetermination to act in a certain way\u201d towards gCaptain.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Apparently we are not alone. Nearly a month ago Forbes asked the IMO to comment on four fundamental legal points<\/a> and, according to\u00a0Nishan Degnarain<\/a>, they are still waiting for the IMO to organize an interview.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Better not even to mention our name at all when they have \u201cconcerns (about) recent factually inaccurate reporting in certain media outlets.\u201d Despite the fact, this site has hundreds of thousands<\/a> of social media followers and receives millions of pageviews each month. It\u2019s better just to pretend we don\u2019t exist and instead focus on the 82 non-government special interest groups<\/a> it does acknowledge\u2026 not one of which, by the way, is an organization representing the people best equipped to investigate questionable intentions: journalists.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n gCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Captain John Konrad (gCaptain) In the fifteen years of running gCaptain, we have reached out to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), \u00a0several times and even traveled to their beautiful London headquarters to stop by (uninvited) and introduce ourselves. We have also offered to help report on their important issues. But we never really hear …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[832,11569],"class_list":["post-18114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-imo","tag-intend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/18115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![beautiful London headquarters<\/a> to stop by (uninvited) and introduce ourselves. We have also offered to help report on their important issues. But we never really hear back from them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nBeing a maritime journalist isn\u2019t a glamorous job. We don\u2019t have teams of lawyers protecting us if we make mistakes. We don\u2019t have government salaries or benefits. We certainly don\u2019t have beautiful offices overlooking the Thames. But we do sleep well at night knowing we have done our best to report the facts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nLast week the IMO issued a statement<\/a> saying \u201cIMO Secretariat has noted with concern recent factually inaccurate reporting in certain media outlets\u201d but did not mention who published factually inaccurate information or reach out to us for corrections. We can\u2019t even be certain they are talking about us except we are only aware of two publications that have been highly critical of the IMO\u2019s response to the MV Wakashio oil spill. gCaptain<\/a> and Forbes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nIs the IMO, a powerful international governance body with an over $50 million dollar annual budget<\/a>, using its considerable weight and taxpayer support to bully journalists who make less than $100,000 per year?<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAnd who is making this statement? Who is the \u201cIMO Secretariat\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0exactly? Is that a person? A horse<\/a>? A legal body within the IMO? Or is it the body itself? Did member states vote on this statement? \u00a0We don\u2019t know but a person familiar with the IMO has informed us that statements like these are typically approved by Fred Kenney, IMO\u2019s\u00a0Director, Legal and External Affairs<\/a>\u2026 which leads to the question of why the position of external affairs is held by a lawyer rather than a public relations expert?<\/p>\n<\/p>\nWe can not be certain that the IMO is talking about us be we are certain that the press release<\/a> and the Wakashio\u00a0FAQ<\/a> calling out journalists itself contains multiple accounts of false information. Let\u2019s look at just one. The one that is most obviously wrong.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nIn the FAQ the IMO writes:<\/p>\n<\/p>\nSo an investigation \u201cshould be initiated as soon as possible\u201d but Panama has only \u201cindicated its intention<\/strong><\/em> to proceed with an investigation\u201d. The MV Wakashipo ran aground on 25 July 2020 and this press release was issued on the 16 September 2020. That\u2019s fifty three days and still they only \u201cintend<\/strong><\/em>\u201d to investigate\u2026 they haven\u2019t actually started. \u00a0In that period of time a major piece of evidence, THE ENTIRE BOW OF THE SHIP<\/a>, has been lost to investigators.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAnd how about the IMO\u2019s mandate to \u201cunderstand why the incident occurred and so that\u00a0IMO can follow up\u00a0on any\u00a0recommendations\u201d. \u00a0Well, that\u2019s not correct either. According to several news reports<\/a> and a press statement<\/a> from Intercargo \u2013 an organization to which Wakashio\u2019s charterer, MOL, is a member \u2013 \u201cDuring the period 2009-2018, one hundred and 188 lives were lost as a result of 48 bulk carrier losses, however, investigation reports were only made available on the IMO\u2019s Global Integrated Shipping Information System for 27 of these casualties with the average reporting time being 34 months, which, in our strong opinion, is excessively long.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\nAnd what was the IMO\u2019s response to Intercargo\u2019s allegations about the IMO\u2019s \u201clack of reporting of very serious casualties\u201d? Well here\u2019s the press release headline<\/a> \u201c\u201cIntercargo applaud the IMO\u2019s intention<\/strong><\/em> to improve casualty investigation reporting\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThere\u2019s that word again. Intend<\/strong><\/em>. Panama intends<\/strong><\/em> to investigate the Wakashio and the IMO intends<\/strong><\/em> to investigate why 161 very serious incident investigation reports are missing from its database.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nHere is the definition of the word \u201cintention\u201d by Webster<\/a>:<\/p>\n<\/p>\nI will not say that a huge and powerful international body intended to bully and destroy the reputation of a small independent maritime news organization like gCaptain. No, the IMO\u2019s failure to contact us over the many years, failure to invite us to events, and their failure even once stop by offices to say hello (as we have visited them) proves they don\u2019t place any really IMPORTance or SIGNIFICANCE on us at all. Nor do they have any \u201cdetermination to act in a certain way\u201d towards gCaptain.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nApparently we are not alone. Nearly a month ago Forbes asked the IMO to comment on four fundamental legal points<\/a> and, according to\u00a0Nishan Degnarain<\/a>, they are still waiting for the IMO to organize an interview.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nBetter not even to mention our name at all when they have \u201cconcerns (about) recent factually inaccurate reporting in certain media outlets.\u201d Despite the fact, this site has hundreds of thousands<\/a> of social media followers and receives millions of pageviews each month. It\u2019s better just to pretend we don\u2019t exist and instead focus on the 82 non-government special interest groups<\/a> it does acknowledge\u2026 not one of which, by the way, is an organization representing the people best equipped to investigate questionable intentions: journalists.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\ngCaptain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Captain John Konrad (gCaptain) In the fifteen years of running gCaptain, we have reached out to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), \u00a0several times and even traveled to their beautiful London headquarters to stop by (uninvited) and introduce ourselves. We have also offered to help report on their important issues. But we never really hear …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[832,11569],"class_list":["post-18114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-marine-world","tag-imo","tag-intend"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/18115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.al-sindbad.net\/rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/International_Maritime_Organization#\/media\/File:International_Maritime_Organization_Headquarters.jpg\"){kind=link}