Social Media - British judo
Ethics & some of the "players"
Examples of the unetthical behavoiur on social media
and some of the “players” that participate!
SBE December 2021
Updated 16/2/2022:
One of the participants in the riducule, humiliation and supression of others participating in the discusssion has since stopped all GB Judo Event posts in the BJA Southern area group.
Including posts about:
British Cadets competing abroad.
The Sarajevo Open competition where GB won it’s first judo medal of 2022.
(See the full Bronze medal fight only on GBJC – click)
The Paris Grand Slam
Other posts that have been removed include:
England Talent development
A post about the BJA Southern Area’s finances and discussions by members about what the £100k+ could best be spent on.
Only individuals and group administrators and moderators can delete posts in a group.
Updated 24 January 2022
One of the participants in the group bullying and ridicule shown below, recently joined the GB Judo Community FaceBook group (GBJC group).
But when tagged into the post where his comments are shown (un-redacted screenshots) his final comment in the group was quick whereafter he left the group of his own accord.
He did delete his comment before departing for no known reason?
British judo & Social Media
Any political regime will always try to control the discussion narrative within its community’s discussions and suppress information that is critical of the regime’s leadership!
British judo politics is no different and the methods used on social media platforms such as FaceBook groups resembles a dictatorial regime such as North Korea by the use of underhanded methods such as intimidation of the community, online bullying, suppression of facts and the truth and outright lying.
The example below is NOT about the merits of Covid or whether the BJA breached their own and Government guidance and regulations.
It is how a very small loud group will use any method online to control discussions within the judo community no matter how relevant the discussion turned out to be!
A very recent example
British Judo Championships 2021
- Event dates: 10-11-12 December 2021
- Venue: EIS Sheffield
- Organiser: BJA (British Judo Association)
- 409 competitors (revised from 412)
An innocuous enough discussion seeking clarification and avoiding naming the individual.
Considering the current Covid situation in the UK at the time, the relevance due to 409 competitors competing over the weekend, spectators attending and BJA officials working at the event?
One would expect the discussion to revolve around whether the positive test of a BJA official was true, or not, and the possible implications for those that had been in close contact with the person, other officials, competitiors and spectators?
BUT……..this was not to be the case!
A small wolf-pack of online bullies in the GB Judo Underground FaceBook group (“The JUG”) quickly started ridiculing the person having posted the discussion, the serious subject-matter and even the notion that Covid could be dangerous for the participants at the judo Championships along with one JUG administrator making an outright false statement about Covid vaccinations making you immune to the virus.
Updated 28th December 2021
A Timeline of events has been established including the below described example of a few bullying the many from participating and discussing a serious subject matter in the GB Judo Underground FaceBook group (“The JUG”).
None of those that participated in the ridicule and bullying have shown any remorse about their behaviour!
At least one of the participants in the bullying and ridicule was fully aware of the positive Covid test of a BJA official 2 days prior, being a BJA official at the event himself and having been informed of the positive test on the 12th December as were all BJA officials.
The ridiculing comments and persistant attacks by the small group also included a common group bullying tactic of liking or laughing about other fellow bully’s ridiculing comments.
As the screenshots show, when 2 of the GB Judo Underground group’s administrators participate in bullying, it sends a clear message to the group members that the bullying is sanctioned & supported by those in charge of managing and moderating the group.
Thereby discouraging other group members from participating in the discussion or even discussing the subject matter objectively.
Despite GB Judo Undrground having many BJA officials within its numbers that actually knew that it wasn’t just a rumour, it was a FACT that a referee tested positive on the Saturday of the Championships, none participated in the discussion!
The same goes for the many BJA directors, senior leadership team members and safeguarding staff, should they have seen the discussion before it “disappeared”.
The bullying continued until the person having posted the discussion eventually went silent.
Within the group of bullies were:
- A fellow BJA judo referee/official.
- Several BJA area committee members.
- A Head Quarter Committee member from an affiliate judo association.
The participants involved with the bullying includes several judo coaches that does raise the question of their suitability of coaching children.
Many “judo parents” might question whether they would want to leave their child to be coached by an online bully unsupervised?
(See BJA Safeguaring statement and advise)
Upon the screenshots being published in the GBJC FaceBook group, 15th December, documenting the bullying in the JUG, the JUG discussion quickly “disappeared” without notice or reason.
The day after, 16th December, the BJA quickly issues a public statement on their website and FaceBook page about “a positive test” without specifying when or the context.
BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIPS: COVID STATEMENT
by BJA DME
The British Judo Association have been notified of a positive COVID-19 case from an individual who attended the British Championships weekend last weekend (11th/12th December)The Association continues to follow all current Government guidelines and have yet to be contacted by NHS Test and Trace.
While stating the BJA had not yet been contacted by NHS Track and Trace, the BJA were certain in their claim that the NHS Track and Trace had contacted everybody deemed to have been in close contact.
In light of the BJA being informed of the positive test 5 days before making a public statement and the BJA informing other officials 4 days prior to their statement.
Many might suspect that the bullying and ridicule in “The JUG”, in front of many BJA directors, senior management and staff wasn’t a coincidence?
Supressing a discussion of what was known to be a fact to one of the participants in the ridicule and bullying along with many group members being BJA management and officials at the championships that also know it was a fact and the participation of the group administrators only strengthens this suspecion.
BJA safeguarding refusing to clarify matters to a judo parent of a competitor?
Since it has been confirmed, 21st December, that the BJA statement on the 16th was about the BJA official testing positive, no further statement has been made.
A simple role definition of what a good FaceBook group moderator:
As a moderator, whether you personally like individual group members, agree or disagree with statements that they contribute to the group is irrelevant. All group members should be afforded the same opportunity to share and contribute to the group activity without feeling devalued.
Contributing being the key word for group member’s participation in discussions!
How to prevent cyber bullying
You can help stop online bullying in the following ways:
Don’t contribute to online bullying, even if your friends encourage you to do it.
Don’t encourage bullies by “liking” or sharing their comments or posts.
Don’t spread rumors online. Call out misinformation and gossip.
Don’t forward mean messages.
Defend other people when they’re being bullied online.
Block and report harassers. Many websites like Facebook or Twitter have safety centers where you can report harassment.
The GB Judo Underground FaceBook group “the JUG”, a closer look at who the administrators and moderators of the group are might reveal their interest in supressing and controlling certain discussions and subject matters:
JUG Administrators:
Christopher Milward
BJA NW Area Chair.
Also a group administrator in official BJA NW area group.
Simon Hayes
UKBJJA Director & Lead Councilor.
Nadia Minardi
BJA London Area treasurer.
BJA Council member
Neil Harrison
BJC Vice-chair & Treasurer.
Rob Connor
BJJ Coach, states he is a “judo black belt”.
His BJJ club doesn’t teach judo specifically, only as part of the club’s BJJ curriculum.
JUG Moderators:
Glenn Spiers
BJA London Committee.
Gary Howe
Bricklayer.
Danny Williams
GB elite judoka
The five master suppression techniques according to Ås:
Making invisible:
Silencing or otherwise marginalizing people in opposition by ignoring them.
Ridicule:
Portraying the arguments of an opponent, or the opponents themselves, in a ridiculing fashion.
Withholding information:
Excluding a person from the decision making process, or knowingly not forwarding information so as to make the person less able to make an informed choice.
Double bind:
Punishing or otherwise belittling the actions of an opponent, regardless of how they act.
Heaping blame/putting to shame:
Embarrassing someone or insinuating that they themselves are to blame for their position.
UK Gov:
What Is Cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices like cell phones, computers, and tablets. Cyberbullying can occur through SMS, Text, and apps, or online in social media, forums, or gaming where people can view, participate in, or share content. Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else.
A one-off incident or a systematic approach to censoring, suppressing and limiting discussions about judo in the UK?
Judge for yourself?
GB Judo Underground have several senior BJA management members along with past and present BJA Directors.
To name a few:
Andrew Haffner, Nadia Minardi (BJA Council member), Keith Eldridge (BJA Safeguarding manager), Ronnie Saez (BJA Chair), Claire Lish (BJA Director using “Lishy Loo” and “Mumma Lish” on FaceBook in this capacity), Rowena Birch (BJA President), Paul Ajala (BJA Director, former JUG administrator), Peter Blewett (BJA Director & Vice-Chair and Chair of BJA London Area),
……….and too many more to mention within the BJA orgnisational structures including the BJA council that is to supervise the BJA board actions.
– See BJA Council members – click
– See BJA Area members – click
If you are a member of “The JUG” yourself, you can check out who the other members are but also notice who the most participating members are?
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Political regime controlling practises on social media are not recent nor uncommon!
The close connection between the JUG and BJA management is even documented by the BJA in published files but when Sport England expressed concerns about claims the BJA was racist and racists comments were made in the JUG, 2020?
The BJA Directors obsolved themselves from any responsibility of policing the JUG and questioned whether anyt of the comments were actually racist!
Distracting from Facts & Information:
When GBJC published evidence that a file of information about the GB Judo Underground group amd member’s comments* had been supplied to the BJA CEO and distributed widely?
One of the two only group administrators at the time of this happening, Pauyl Ajala, quickly posted a discussion full of false acusations!
* FaceBook insights (data files usually in a spreadsheet format) can only be downloaded by FaceBook group Administrators.
In your spreadsheet, you can see all of your group insights for further analysis.
This data includes:
- Daily numbers (total members, member requests, posts, comments, reactions to posts, and active members)
- Popular days
- Popular times (based on the day of the week)
- Member demographics
- Top contributors
How GB Judo Underground members feel about the information sharing with the BJA board of directors now they know what it can contain of information about their participation in the group?
This has never been the subject of a discussion in GB Judo Underground and probably never will be?
Paul Ajala, when still a JUG administrator, was quick in his attempt to distract from the facts and attempt to discredit anybody associated with with the publications of these!
Whether anyone wants to believe the false and unsubstanciated accusations that he never supplied any evidence of?
Or the evidence his accusations were false?
A similar situation happened shortly after when BJA Director, Claire Lish, claimed someone had caused her and her family “distress” by revealing her identity and her two FaceBook profiles, “Lishy Loo” and “Mumma Lish!
Claire Lish had in fact previously used both these profiles, in public, as a BJA Director, clarifying BJA policy and procedures as the head of the BJA Diversity steering group – on the BJA FaceBook page!
Claire Lish was forwarded the evidence but has failed to respond or apoligise.
BJA Director, Claire Lish, also made a string of false and again, unsubstantiated claims GB Judo Underground, including never having commented in public about the BJA Divesity Steering group using “Lishy Loo” and that “there is no remuneration.”
Andrew Haffner, when still a BJA Director, also made unsubstanciated and false claims in the JUG about a FaceBook comment by him not being made by him, his account having been hacked and the comment having been deleted.
He mistakenly thought the comment had been made in the JUG, it hadn’t. It had in fact been made months earlier on a personal FaceBook profile.
The comment Andrew Haffer did make, also contained false information about the person he was praising!
The person Andrew Haffner is praising was in fact NOT a BJA member nor listed on the BJA Dan registry!
The person went onto publicly advertise on FaceBook to coach children in judo, one-on-one, without being a member of a judo association, having no judo coaching qualifications or passed the basic coaching requirement of a current DBS check.
To lend himself credibility, he would use private messages between himself and Andrew Haffner and send many persons screenshots of these!
BJA Chair, Ronnie Saez, stating what actions taken against negative comments on FaceBook and getting them replaced with “positive” ones.
This is commonly known as censorship & propaganda.
Examples of discussions disappearing in GB Judo Undergound:
BJA Chair, Ronnie Saez.
His mysterious and secret re-elected for 4 more years, 2021, was shared as a discussion in GB Judo Underground but “disappeared” shortly after.
The BJA has to date still not notified members of his re-election and the BJA website “about us” page has recently deleted content about who elects the BJA Chair.
This post does contain information about Ronnie Saez’s previous handling of public funding that some may find troubling considering the lack of details in the BJA’s financial reporting to Clubs, Coaches and Members!
Deletion of content previously made public is not an unknown phenomenon with the BJA!
The BJA board does mistakely call it “redacting” and not what it in reality is. Attempting to re-write history and hide facts.
In connection with the BJA “Athlete vs Athlete bullying case”, the BJA board removed content from a previous board meeting minute document where it was made known which of the BJA board members had access to details from the ongoing investigation by Fulcrum lawyers.
This could have been due to a member of what the BJA publicly described as a “fully independent disciplinary panel” was in fact a close friend with several BJA board members and the daughter of the head of the BJA Sport Directorate, Colin McIvor.
See BJA “Short Statement” – click
Lisa Allen – “fully independent panel member” with her father Colin McIvor, BJA Sport director.
Colin McIvor is also a member of the BJA Senior Leadership Team (SLT) that along with the BJA Directors, this group received a combined total of just under £430,000 in remuneration payments, 2019/2020.
Love Judo?
Hate the politics?
……..and don’t want to get inolved?
Depressing at best but where does judo go from here?
Standing up against online bullying, racism, injustice and all the other negatives on social media, getting involved might not be everybody’s cuppa?
But standing by and watching it go unchallenged shoudn’t either!
You could try to raise issues in the politically controlled FaceBook groups such as GB Judo Underground and see what happens?
OR………….
Vote with your fingers?
Leave the groups that are politically controlled, that allow online bullying, suppression of facts, information and discussions!
In most of these groups you won’t be allowed to criticise, suggest or even discuss new possibilities for British judo anyway since any changes to “how we have always done it” is a threat to the political leaders and their “Mates & Minions” on social media.
If you can’t question decisions and leaders in judo and on social media about their actions?
What is your actual role in the judo community?
There are many Judo FaceBook groups that aren’t politically controlled and where discussions can be constructive, creative and even fun to participate in!
The GBJC FaceBook group operates a transparent moderation policy where relevant actions are made known to the members that can freely comment and express their opinions to the moderators without fear of consequences & reprisals.
The GBJC FaceBook group won’t supply any judo association with data or details of its members, their comments, opinions and or other data since it is independent and managed with transparency.
GBJC FaceBook group – click
There is also the public GB Judo Event group where judo events from all and any judo association can be shared and promoted!
GB Judo event group – click
#StrongerTogether
Examples of BJA management’s involvement with GB Judo Underground FaceBook group:
Action taken after the BJA raised the membership and grading fees and a member of the group made a suggestion that didn’t suit the BJA Chair and CEO!
NO ACTION TAKEN about racist comments in GB Judo Underground!
Racist comments in GB Judo Underground discussion, 2020, why the BJA isn’t responsible for comments there or behaviour of the group members nor the moderators and administrators of the group while questioning whether any comments were actually racist:
BJA Director, Claire Lish, that at the time didn’t think there were any racist comments among the 600+ made in the discussion was later appointed to head up the BJA Diversity & Inclusion Steering group and using both “Lishy Loo” & “Mumma Lish” FaceBook profiles, clarified the role of the BJA steering group on the BJA FaceBook page, May 2021, to a BJA member.
See previous screenshot of her public BJA Director comments.
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