ABSTRACT
The public interest basis for this programme is that, while there is an international agreement to protect species that are facing extinction – rhinos, turtles, elephants, tigers and so forth – thanks to mankind’s taking over more and more of the Earth’s surface, this agreement, CITES or the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna is known to be widely flouted. Evidence of this has been obtained by, for example, the Environmental Information Agency (despite its official sounding name, a pressure group of activists with skills in video production and investigation) (Grundy, 1996) and in this case by journalists. ‘Making a Killing’ tells the story of a chase: how Roger Cook got evidence of the trade in species supposedly protected by CITES, how he recorded the illegal and cruel killings of such species and then took his evidence to the South African High Commission (Embassy) to demand action on behalf of us all.
