Borderpol is an international organisation whose mission is to promote improved international borders by working with border security agencies to enhance human mobility whilst at the same time achieving traveller safety and the improved security of border control systems. Recently,Charles Stevens, a Borderpol representative and an international expert in Travel Document Security, delivered an eight module course in Document Security and Document Fraud Detection to a group of senior officers of the Borders and Coastguard Agency (BCA).

The course covered travel and identity document security, assessment of travellers from a security and border control perspective and methods of detecting document fraud. Lectures covered a range of fraud methods encountered at border controls and security check points ranging from detecting impostors, impersonators using unaltered documents of other people, to the detection of forgeries, documents that have been tampered with and altered, and detection of counterfeit and total replications of real documents.

The course focussed on demonstrating international standards for travel documents and in showing the range of document security safeguards that states can use to secure their documents. It also showed the students how to examine suspect documents to determine whether they are genuine or not. In addition, the course looked at equipment and technical tools that can be deployed to detect fraud at the front line controls at any of our entry control points.

The course was organised with Borderpol by BCA Training Manager Andrew Victor and participants included Managers and Senior Borders and Coastguard Officers.

Mr Stevens praised the Borders and Coastguard Agency for the professionalism and skill levels of its staff and said "The Borders and Coastguard Agency officers are committed to developing the capability of front line staff to combat and detect document fraud while facilitating the speedy passage of genuine passengers through Gibraltar's border controls."

For his part, Andrew Bonfante the Chief Executive of the Borders and Coastguard Agency said "At the Agency we strive to ensure our officers are trained to the highest of standards in all aspects which are important to our everyday work. This course is part of a planned and progressive immigration training programme developed to ensure our officers can provide Gibraltar the best service possible."

06-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR

Minister on UK tribunal visit

May 06, 2015

The Minister for Business and Employment, Neil F Costa, has just returned from the UK on a visit to familiarise himself with the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal processes in the UK. The Minister was accompanied by Mr John Paul Fa, the Ministry's Legal Counsel.

In line with its manifesto commitments, the Government is undertaking a wholesale review and substantive reform of the existing Industrial Tribunal dispute resolution and adjudication process.

Whilst in the United Kingdom, Minister Costa and Mr Fa held meetings with Mr Justice Langstaff, President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal and Judge Elizabeth Potter, the London Regional Employment Judge from HM Courts & Tribunal Service. The respective Tribunal processes in the UK were discussed and the meetings allowed the Minister and Mr Fa to raise a wide range of legal and administrative issues in the context of the pending domestic reforms. The Minister and Mr Fa have had the privilege to learn at first hand about the main judicial and administrative processes from senior judges involved in the day-to-day management of Employment Tribunals and Appeal Tribunals in the UK.

06-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR

MYTH DEBUNKED! Breaking the myth of the Chronicle being the second oldest paper in the world

May 06, 2015 | By Joe Garcia

Joe Garcia is the first Gibraltarian journalist to receive an award in The Queen's Honours List for his services to journalism in Gibraltar and abroad

The Chronicle is not the first Gibraltarian newspaper, said ex editor Searle.

With Panorama now in its 40th year of publication, it may be an opportune moment to delve into newspaper history and to break the myth, once and for all, that the Chronicle is the second oldest paper in the world or derivations thereof. What benefit is there to prolong the myth when such a claim is simply not true?

As someone who has done much research into old newspapers, it has always been clear to me that there are other English-language papers which are the oldest, tracing their history into the 1700s - and equally we must not forget the historic papers in other languages which transcend the 1700s and find their beginnings in the 1600s.

The Chronicle is old, having been born in 1801, but throughout most of its history it has been something of a strange colonial animal, conceived by the military and kept under their tutelage deep into the dying days of the 20th century.

When I interviewed Dominique Searle a few years ago I said to him: "You have rightly ceased to call yourself the second oldest newspaper in the world, and different derivations of such a myth." Writing about his resignation as editor a few days ago, I noticed that he made the general comment that he had "tried to be a gentle myth-buster", which might explain why he quietly corrected the biggest myth of them all about where the Chronicle stands historically.

Not only that but he recognised in the interview that the Chronicle was "not the first Gibraltarian newspaper, in the sense that, in difficult circumstances, others gave Gibraltar a 'local' press such as El Calpense, El Anunciador and others."

OWNED AND CONTROLLED BY THE MILITARY

Indeed, the military ownership and control spanned most of the Chronicle's history.

He added: It was used by the British establishment to influence local opinion - or equally steer people away from real events. He said it was "a real anachronism" for the military to own what was then the only daily paper at the end of the 20th century.

Throughout most of its existence, censorship was the order of the day, with most editors of the paper being military officers - so they had colonels, majors, captains etc appointed as editors!

The military and indeed early governors had direct control of the Chronicle, which was more of a military pamphlet than a proper newspaper, until they unshackled themselves of their military owners not that long ago.

SPANISH INVENTION!

So, how did the myth develop? Well, in the 1980s when The Times endured a year-long strike and obviously did not publish during that period, Spanish media made the mistaken assumption that since The Times was the oldest and it had ceased publication, the Chronicle was now the oldest in Europe! And when The Times re-appeared, it was concluded that the Chronicle was the second oldest!

Of course, since The Times (founded in 1785 as the Daily Universal Register) was never the oldest, what they ascribed to Gibraltar did not apply!

There are many English-launguage newspapers which are older than The Times. Some of them have sent us copies of their ancient front pages. The Belfast News Letter (founded 1737) is regarded as the oldest English language daily and it is still being published. The Aberdeen 'Press and Journal' was established in 1738 and another Scottish paper 'The Herald' was founded in 1783, previously known as the Glasgow Herald.

And there are others. When we contacted the American 'Hartford Courant'(founded 1764) they sent us details about their being the longest-established continuously published paper in the Americas - while the Canadian 'Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph' was also born in the same year.

The German language can lay claim to the first newspapers published in the 1600s. There is a paper in Sweden that traces its longevity to 1645, and a French language newspaper in Switzerland was first published in 1738. And there are very old papers in other north European countries in particular, such as Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands etc.

So, the myth about the Chronicle is debunked. Not only that, but during its prolonged military history, non-journalistic practices such as freedom of expression were at least curtailed.

In fact, when the Chronicle finally became a proper newspaper at the end of the 20th century, Panorama was already published.

The question arises: Which is the longest-established Gibraltarian newspaper? Certainly, not the one-time military owned and controlled, which its previous editor rightly recognises as not being the first Gibraltarian newspaper...

The oldest Gibraltarian newspaper is Panorama.

06-05-15 PANORAMAdailyGIBRALTAR