Journalism at Risk
Kurt Vonnegut, Writer of Classics of the American Counterculture, Dies at 84
By DINITIA SMITH
Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died Wednesday night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.
His death was reported by Morgan Entrekin, a longtime family friend, who said Mr. Vonnegut suffered brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago.
Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.
Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?
He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/books/11cnd-vonnegut.html?ex=1177560000&en=6434453fb7041610&ei=5070
THE NEW YORK TIMES “ZOO NEWSROOM”
http://www.innovationsinnewspapers.com/index.php/2007/04/10/the-new-york-times-zoo-newsroom/
CALIFORNIA FOLLOWS THE WRONG TREND WITH ANOTHER “ZOO NEWSROOM”
http://www.innovationsinnewspapers.com/index.php/2007/04/11/california-follows-the-wrong-trend-with-another-zoo-newsroom/
The Zoo Office Room
http://www.flickr.com/photos/katewood/303319274/in/set-72157594386780490/
Farewell to Journalism Great David Halberstam
As has been widely reported, acclaimed journalist David Halberstam was killed yesterday morning in a three-car accident in Menlo Park. Halberstam, 73, gave a lecture at UC Berkeley Saturday night as part of the Graduate School of Journalism’s annual alumni weekend, and was on his way to conduct an interview for an upcoming book when the collision occurred. Today, local papers have revealed a few details about the J-school student who had been driving the car.
http://blogs.eastbayexpress.com/92510/2007/04/as_has_been_widely_reported.php
Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune Book Editor
The National Book Critics Circle has launched a Campaign to Save Book Reviewing. This post is part of the campaign’s blog series , which features posts by concerned writers, op-eds, Q and As, and tips about how you can get involved to make sure those same owners and editors know that book sections matter.
Q. Your section was folded into "Living" and the budget cut after Katrina. How have you handled this change?
A. Until Katrina, our book pages appeared at the end of a freestanding Sunday Travel section; after Katrina, our Food, Travel and Book sections were all folded into Living, the natural place for our readers to look for our features. In many ways, it meant no change at all -- working with the same wonderful Living editor/page designer I've always worked with, the same copy editors -- except for the reduction in space. But I am writing more than ever, and I must use wire copy from time to time. As soon as it was at all feasible, we were given a regular Sunday page; now that space is up to a page and a half, sometimes two. Living is where all my author interviews appear, and those editors, who all love books, have been extremely generous with space, so many of my stories are finding a place there as well as occasional placements in our weekend entertainment guide, Lagniappe. We send all of our book reviews to our web site, nola. com.
http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/2007/04/susan-larson-new-orleans-times-picayune.html
Zimbabwe: 85 Jailed for Flouting Mining Rules
The Herald (Harare)
April 26, 2007Posted to the web April 26, 2007
Harare
EIGHTY-FIVE people have been jailed since January for failing to adhere to mining regulations following the Environmental Management Agency's countrywide crackdown on illegal mining activities.
Acting spokesperson for the agency Mr Johane Gandiwa yesterday told journalists at a two-day environmental reporting workshop that stringent measures, which included tightening environment-related laws, were underway while offenders were being jailed at least two years.
"So far, we have testified in 100 court cases and 85 people have since been jailed for not less than two years for degrading the environment," Mr Gandiwa said.
He said an investigation conducted by the agency showed that at least 600 000 people were still mining illegally countrywide.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200704260274.html
DISSENT: Critics Quickly Jailed in Cuba, China, Turkey
A renowned Chinese clean-water campaigner in the industrialized Shanghai watershed was taken from his home last week by undercover police officers on charges of blackmail.
Although pollution there is bad enough to have brought visits by top Communist Party officials, Wu Lihong's family says his work upset local officials who profit from factory taxes.
Critics say Chinese harassment and detention of activists is commonplace.
In Cuba, journalist Oscar Sanchez Madan was arrested, tried and jailed all on the same day; a week later, human rights advocate Rolando Jimenez Posada was given a 12-year sentence after being held without charges for four years.
Both trials were held in secret, and neither had defense lawyers present. The Miami Herald reports that secret trials are common in Cuba, but are only recently coming to light.
http://www.newsdesk.org/archives/004259.html
Malaysia lodges protest with BBC
Friday, April 27, 2007
4/26/2007 8:46:53
Source AFP
KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia has lodged a protest with the BBC for airing interviews with "rejected" leaders of opposition political parties, state media reported yesterday.
Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin criticised the British broadcaster for giving air time to opposition leaders he said had been "rejected" by voters-a veiled reference to ex-deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim.
He also said the move by the BBC would undermine bilateral relations between Malaysia and Britain, the state Bernama news agency reported. "It would be appropriate if the air time was given to the opposition political parties that had a place in politics in Malaysia but why focus on people who have been rejected?" Zainuddin was quoted as saying by Bernama. "What is the objective of the BBC in doing so?" he said.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=April2007&file=World_News2007042684653.xml
April 26, 2007
Leaking Secrets
I was dismissed as Ambassador to Uzbekistan when one of my diplomatic telegrams was leaked to the Sunday Times. The telegram complained of our continual receipt, via the CIA, of intelligence obtained by torture in Uzbekistan. It detailed London meetings which had approved this policy, referred to the CIA flying people to Uzbekistan and handing them over to the Uzbek intelligence services, and explained the illegality of this activity.
Interestingly the Financial Times decided to publish only a tiny fraction of this information, which was explosive back then in October 2003, as extraordinary rendition had not yet hit the headlines. But the leak was enough to get me sacked, and to institute a formal leak inquiry. Once it became plain that I was not the leaker, the inquiry was quietly stopped.
I have therefore been more sensitive than most to the Government's continued habit of leaking "Intelligence" when it suits it. My objection has largely been that the government does this in order to exaggerate the threat of terrorism and instil fear, which they view as helpful in rallying popular support to the "War on Terror".
I was therefore furious when I saw a headline "Al-Qaeda planning Big British Attack" in the Sunday Times of 22 April. So furious I have been carrying the cutting in my pocket all the way to Moscow, until I got the chance to blog about it. I see in the interim the opposition have started making a related point.
http://www.craigmurray.co.uk/archives/2007/04/leaking_secrets.html
Rasool blasted in mosque uproar
Premier Ebrahim Rasool is fuming after the funeral of a Cape struggle hero in a city mosque was disrupted by radicals and nearly degenerated into a free-for-all.Ismail Abrahams, better known as "Boeta Mylie from Bonteheuwel", died on Friday after a long battle with cancer. His dying wish was to unite radical Muslim factions with his fellow comrades from the fight against apartheid - such as Finance Minister Trevor Manuel and Rasool, whom he saw "as his son", his family said. But at his funeral on Saturday, Rasool was lambasted with insults, forcing security guards to intervene and resulting in his abandoning his planned tribute.
"Things were on the verge of getting quite ugly," Rasool confirmed today. "They made the funeral an advertisement for intolerance and extremism, instead of fulfilling Boeta Mylie's wishes for building reconciliation."Abrahams was a militant anti-apartheid activist and an early member of the Call of Islam, one of the organisations under the United Democratic Front umbrella in the 1980s. Described as "fiery" and "outspoken", Abrahams also belonged to Qibla - the anti-apartheid movement inspired by the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979 - which was created in the early 1980s to promote the aims and ideals of the Iranian revolution in South Africa and to transform the country into an Islamic state, under the slogan "One Solution, Islamic Revolution".
http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20070425113156349C685571
African plight of the press
More than 480 journalists have been killed or incarcerated in Africa during the last 14 years by governments hell-bent on silencing the free press.Nigerian-born journalist Eyobong Ita, a Kiplinger Fellow at Ohio State, kept count as the dead bodies piled up."About 186 journalists have been killed from 1992 to 2006. Eight have disappeared without a trace and are suspected dead," Ita said during a presentation in Page Hall Tuesday.
More than 300 journalists have been jailed since 1992 throughout various countries in Africa, Ita said. The vast majority of the killings and incarcerations came after journalists criticized public officials. "The governments of countries like Ethiopia, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, those leaders are not so media friendly," Ita said. "Many of them don't care."The situation in Zimbabwe might be one of the most dire, as the former breadbasket of southern Africa has no independent broadcast medium and just one independent publication remaining.
http://media.www.thelantern.com/media/storage/paper333/news/2007/04/25/Campus/African.Plight.Of.The.Press-2879738.shtml
Cuban Dissident Stand Trial
"Secret trials in Cuba criticized; Two Cuban dissidents went before secret trials this month as one of the island's longest-serving political prisoners was released. CUBASource: The Miami Herald 04/24/2007
A Cuban dissident was sentenced to 12 years in prison in the second secret trial in less than a week, while a third government opponent was freed after completing a 17-year sentence.
Lawyer Rolando Jiménez Posada's 12-year sentence came as one of the island's longest-serving political prisoners, Jorge Luís García Pérez, known as Antúnez, was released after serving a sentence marked by hunger strikes, allegations of beatings and a bold escape.
Last week, independent journalist Oscar Sánchez Madan was sentenced to four years in prison, after being arrested, tried and convicted all in the same day -- and also without a defense lawyer present.''Those kinds of things only happen with an order from up top,'' said Manuel Vázquez Portal, a former political prisoner who now lives in South Florida. ``What I think is that after Fidel Castro's apparent recovery [from intestinal surgery] the government feels reborn and is taking measures in the name of that recovery.
http://checksnbalances.blogspot.com/2007/04/cuban-dissidents-stand-trial.html
Turkey : Kurdish parties
(Source : Eurasianet.org With parliamentary elections approaching later this year, Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish political party is finding itself at a crossroads, beset by increasing pressure from both within and without. In recent weeks, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) has endured a crackdown, with dozens of its top leaders arrested or jailed and several of its offices raided by the police. An Ankara court in February sentenced party co-chairs Aysel Tugluk and Ahmet Turk to 1 1/2 (...) )
http://www.turquieeuropeenne.eu/article1908.html
Iran Journalists Call For Colleague's Release
April 23, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- More than 250 Iranian journalists have called in an open letter to Iran's top judiciary official for the release of jailed colleague Ali Farahbakhsh, Radio Farda reported.
Farahbakhsh was sentenced in March to three years in prison on espionage charges.
His fellow journalists say the judiciary has not provided evidence to support the conviction.
Farahbakhsh was arrested in November after returning from an economics conference in Thailand.
Media groups worry that Farahbakhsh was jailed solely for exercising his right to free expression.
Several Iranian journalists and rights activists have been detained in recent months in connection with appearances at international conferences.
http://www.payvand.com/news/07/apr/1266.html
SEAPA holds forum on journalists' safety to commemorate World Press Freedom Day
27 April 2007
Source: Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA)
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Indonesian Press Council will kick off a series of events in Jakarta, Indonesia, to commemorate World Press Freedom Day.
Starting on the eve, 2 May 2007, is a half-day forum supported by UNESCO to discuss this year's theme: 'Press Freedom, Safety of Journalists and Impunity', followed by a workshop on defamation organised by AJI on 3-4 May.
The half-day forum, from 2:00-5:00 p.m., will highlight the increasingly dangerous environment journalists now find themselves working in. Journalists are being sued, arrested, kidnapped, attacked and murdered, while many of the perpetrators of the crimes against them get away scot-free. The situation is particularly dire in the Philippines, where at least 125 journalists have been killed since 1986, when democracy was restored, 63 of them in the line of duty, according to the Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR).
Journalists, however, are also vulnerable to other physical threats and put themselves at risk during the coverage of disasters, for instance. The February ferry tragedy in Indonesia, which claimed the additional lives of two journalists who were accompanying an investigating team probing into the tragedy, is a stark reminder. Such non-political safety issues will also be taken up during the discussions.
http://www.seapabkk.org/newdesign/newsdetail.php?No=659
Washington gets a reporter's shield that covers the Net.
Now it's time for a federal privilege
By Richard Koman for Silicon Valley Watcher
Tomorrow, Gov. Christine Gregoir will sign a bill adding Washington to the list of states with reporter's shield laws. California's shield was written into its Constitution into the 1970s. Washington's shield law is notable for including the Internet in its definition of news media and explictly protecting non-news sources against subpoenas. But state shields offer no protection for journalists in federal court, as the incarceration of Judith Miller - and to some degree Josh Wolf - show.
http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt/archives/2007/04/washington_gets.php
Venezuelans protest government closure of TV network
Venezuelans took to the streets Saturday to protest Hugo Chavez's closure of the country's oldest privately-owned television station, Radio Caracas Television, in what's being reported as the opposition's strongest showing yet in support of the station. "Democracy is being lost in Venezuela," one 72-year-old protester told the Associated Press, echoing the concerns that press freedom groups have voiced particularly since Chavez's re-election and subsequent vows to take the country even deeper into socialism. This has been evident in Chavez's increased enforcement of laws (with steeper penalties than before) against criticizing the president or any public officials. The media cannot do its job if it can't take leaders to task when necessary and tell the public the unadulterated truth.
http://journalism.about.com/b/a/000092.htm
JOURNALIST KILLED, ANOTHER WOUNDED IN SEPARATE SHOOTINGS
A murdered radio reporter and another journalist ambushed by gunmen last week are two of the latest victims of politically motivated attacks on journalists, activists and opposition leaders in the Philippines, report the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and other press freedom groups. Most of these types of attacks go unpunished.
Carmelo Palacios, crime reporter for the government-run radio station dxRB Radyo ng Bayan, was found dead on 18 April in Nueva Ecija province, with gunshot wounds on his chin, heavy bruising on his body and a broken jaw. According to CMFR, the police officer heading the murder investigation said that Palacios must have "earned the ire of scallywag policemen and politicians," on whose crimes Palacios had reported. Palacios headed a local anti-crime group and had done a series of hard-hitting reports on the alleged misuse of funds by a congressman.
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/82788/
CHINA: Jailed ST journalist's wife presses for parole
Ching Cheong's wife and family continue to lobby for the journalist's early release under medical parole
Straits Times
Monday, April 23, 2007
Hong Kong --- The wife of jailed Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong prayed yesterday for his early release on the second anniversary of his detention.
Ms Mary Lau said her husband's health is ailing and the family will continue to lobby for his early release under medical parole.
"When we saw him the last time, his health was very poor. His mood swung. His blood pressure and heart rate were not stable," she said.
She has visited him twice since he was transferred to Guangzhou Prison from Beijing on Jan 31 following the family's appeals for the move.
"He's taking three medicines and seeing a doctor. We're very worried," Ms Lau said.
Ching, 57, a Hong Kong-based correspondent for this newspaper, was arrested in southern Guangdong province on April 22, 2005.
He was sentenced to five years' jail after a one-day trial last August on charges that he was spying for Taiwan. A Chinese court rejected his appeal in late November.
Ching's family is allowed to see him once a month.
About 10 of the couple's supporters prayed for blessings yesterday at a Buddhist temple on an outlying island in Hong Kong. They insist that Ching is innocent and that there is no real evidence to prove the spying charge.
Date Posted: 4/23/2007
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-eastasia.asp?parentid=68317
Journalist jailed in Rwanda
23/04/2007 19:50 - (SA)
Nairobi - A Rwandan journalist has been sentenced to one year's jail for libel against authorities, said a human rights group on Monday.
Agnes Nkusi Uwimana, who runs the independent bi-monthly Umurabyo, was on Friday found guilty of "contempt, libel and serious slander of the head of state, political and military authorities and of other private people", the League for Human Rights in the Great Lakes Region said on its website.
Uwimana, who was arrested on January 12, was also found guilty of "discrimination and sectarianism" and of writing bad cheques, according to the group.
The league said the journalist had "pleaded guilty and apologised" during the trial, but according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based media watchdog, she had only done so in exchange for a reduction of the five-year sentence requested by the state prosecutor.
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_2103324,00.html
African Officials Express Concerns About US Africa Command Plan
By Al Pessin
Washington
23 April 2007
A senior U.S. official says he encountered some resistance to the plan to create a new U.S. military command for Africa during a recent visit to six countries on the continent. But the official, Undersecretary of Defense Ryan Henry, says he believes that once the African leaders heard the specifics of the U.S. plan, they were more supportive. VOA's Al Pessin reports from the Pentagon.
Undersecretary Henry says he encountered "varying degrees of frankness" during his meetings last week in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and Senegal, and with African Union officials.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-04-23-voa60.cfm
SAHEL: Traffickers targeting poorest countries
DAKAR, 23 April 2007 (IRIN) - Organised crime is on the rise across the Sahel region of West Africa as traffickers target the ancient trading region’s remote desert routes and cities to move drugs, people and illicit goods across borders and to Europe, officials and analysts warn.
In Niger, where earlier this month twelve men with three container trucks loaded with drugs and guns were arrested, President Mamadou Tandja on Monday evening declared that Niger’s army will step up its policing to stop the country being “entrenched” by drug and arms traffickers who he said pose a “real threat” to Niger.
Meanwhile, in Burkina Faso, the amount of drugs intercepted over the last three months is “astounding”, according to Christophe Compaore, coordinator of the Committee Against Illicit Drug Trafficking in Burkina Faso, who warns of an emerging drug transit road in the west and south west of his country.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71765
CENTRAL AFRICA: Indigenous communities fight discrimination
IMPFONDO, 23 April 2007 (IRIN) - From the day he started school, François Ababehu-Utauta's short stature made him a laughing stock among other children, but still he persevered with his studies.
"No [child] wanted me to sit next to him in class," the 18-year-old, 1.40m tall Ababehu-Utauta said. "For them, I do not have this right and I am not like them.
"I considered abandoning my studies to devote myself to the activities of the forest," he told IRIN. "Then I told myself that freedom is a fight; I had to resist the uncivil acts of the [other children]. I did not give up because I know I am bright."
Ababehu-Utauta is a member of the Mbuti community, sometimes known as pygmies, who live in the tropical rainforests of central Africa. He originally came from Oriental province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71750
Harsh anti-citizen journalism law will be impossible to implement
By Graham Holliday
Saturday, 21 April 2007
I'm a journalist. I write a blog. I upload photographs to the photo sharing site Flickr and video to YouTube. I also post snippets of text to the mini-blog site Twitter, sometimes using my mobile phone to do so. These are all free online publishing services and they're used by millions of people worldwide. For some governments, this is a problem. At least it is in France and the US.
On 25 March in Toulouse, there was a small-scale riot.
About 300 Toulousains took to the streets in protest against the appearance of far-right presidential candidate Jean Marie Le Pen at a rally in the city. Police were deployed, tear gas used, a helicopter monitored events from above and in total 20,000 euros (£13,000) was reportedly spent containing the small number of protesters.
http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/article/210407/graham_holliday_anticitizen_journalism_law
Eritrea: Two Journalists Captured in Somalia Are Shown in Video Posted On Ethiopian Pro-Government Website
Reporters sans Frontières (Paris)
PRESS RELEASE
April 19, 2007
Posted to the web April 20, 2007
A video published on an Ethiopian pro-government website on 13 April 2007 includes footage of two Eritrean state TV journalists, cameraman Tesfalidet Kidane Tesfazghi and reporter Saleh Idris Gama, who have been held in secret since their December 2006 arrest in Somalia.
"We are certain of their identity and of the fact that they are professional journalists who were sent to Somalia to work for the TV station that employs them," Reporters Without Borders said today. "That foreigners, including Eritreans, fought alongside the Union of Islamic Courts and are now prisoners of war is one thing. But Tesfalidet and Saleh were not combatants and should not be used to settle scores between Ethiopia and Eritrea."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200704200810.html
Ethiopia and Eritrea the Top Jailers of Journalists
Nairobi (HAN) December 15, 2005 -The Committee to Protect Journalists listed Eritrea as the worst offender, for having jailed the largest African journalists last decade. Ethiopia & Cuba was ranked second for imprisoning other number of reporters in 2005, followed by Uzbekistan. The most journalists in jail this year, together accounting for two-thirds of the 125 editors, writers and photojournalists imprisoned around the world, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.
The United States, which is detaining four journalists in Iraq and one in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, rose to sixth among countries jailing journalists. Twenty-four countries in all have journalists in jail, according to the Dec. 1 tally, the committee said. Subversion, divulging state secrets and acting against the interests of the state were the most common charges lodged against the media worldwide, the organization said. The number of jailed journalists around the world rose from 122 in 2004.
http://www.geeskaafrika.com/ethiopia_14dec05.htm
U.S. Tied With Burma For Jailed Journalists
December 14, 2005
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2005/12/14/us_tied_with_burma_for_jailed_journalists.php
U.S. Ranks Sixth Among Countries Jailing Journalists, Report Says
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: December 14, 2005
The United States has tied with Myanmar, the former Burma, for sixth place among countries that are holding the most journalists behind bars, according to a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Each country is jailing five journalists. The United States is holding four Iraqi journalists in detention centers in Iraq and one Sudanese, a cameraman who works for Al Jazeera, at the United States Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. None of the five have been charged with a specific crime.
This year, China topped the list of countries with the most journalists - 32 - in jail, many of them for activity on the Internet. This is the seventh year in a row in which China has led the list.
Fifteen of the Chinese journalists are being held under national security legislation for writing critically about the Communist Party online, the report said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/14/business/media/14journalists.html?ex=1177905600&en=74f327ee3b3785fc&ei=5070
CHINA: CPJ urges Hu to release journalists, shed notorious title
December 13, 2005
TO: His Excellency Hu Jintao
President, People's Republic of China
C/o Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20008
Via facsimile: (202) 588-0032
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the imprisonment of journalists for their work. In a survey released today, CPJ found that China is the world's leading jailer of journalists for the seventh consecutive year, with 32 writers and editors behind bars. Four were imprisoned this year, adding to the long list of journalists previously jailed.
Fifteen, or roughly half, of the imprisoned journalists are Internet writers, including Zhang Lin, Li Jianping, and Yang Maodong (commonly known by his pen name Guo Feixiong), who were jailed this year. As China's Internet users surpass 100 million, jailing individuals for voicing their opinions online or for transmitting news and information deprives Chinese citizens of the right to participate in their country's future.
http://www.cpj.org/protests/05ltrs/China13dec05pl.html
ETHIOPIA: Two more journalists jailed on old charges
New York, December 12, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged that two more journalists have been jailed on criminal charges that have been revived since a crackdown on the press in November. The convictions last week relating to articles published up to seven years ago bring the number of journalists now behind bars in Ethiopia to at least 15, according to CPJ research.
"It is scandalous that Ethiopian authorities have persisted in using outdated and illegitimate charges to send these journalists to jail," said Ann Cooper, executive director of CPJ. "We call on authorities to release our Ethiopian colleagues immediately, and to work towards removing criminal penalties for press offenses."
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Ethiopia12dec05na.html
Advocacy Group calls on Bush to condemn Ethiopian violence, impose sanctions
Dece 11, 2005 — Ethiopian Americans for Democracy (EAD), a US-based advocacy group today called on US President George Bush to personally speak up against the ongoing slaughter in Ethiopia before it is too late.
EAD also called on Mr. Bush to pressure Zenawi to step down to spare the country further blood shed, and to impose Zimbabwe-style sanctions if he refuses to go.
The group criticized US policy that has closed its eyes to the massive violence unleashed by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia. According to EAD, Zenawi has effectively marketed himself as the only reliable US ally to fight terrorism in the Horn of Africa, giving him a blank check to hunt down and destroy domestic opponents.
http://www.sudantribune.com/article.php3?id_article=12990
Journalist’s widow cited in Reporters Without Frontiers awards
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews)—Gemma Damalerio, widow of jour-nalist Edgar Damalerio who was killed on May 13, 2002 in Pagadian City, is among those cited in the 2005 Reporters Without Frontiers.
Gemma is one of two runners-up in the “defender of press freedom” category, an honor she shares with the Save Inde-pendent Radio Movement (Nepal).
The winner in the “defender of press free-dom” category is the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ, for-merly SOJON), founded in Mogadishu in 2002 to defend journalists and press freedom in Somalia, which has been torn apart by civil war since 1991.
http://bond.lanesystems.com/sitegen/article.asp?wid=125&cid=451&aid=34080
TAJIKISTAN:
Authorities ignore second Supreme Court order to free journalist
New York, December 9, 2005—Tajik authorities have ignored a second Supreme Court order to release jailed independent journalist Jumaboy Tolibov, according to a local CPJ legal source, who is monitoring the case.
The court ruled on October 11 and again on November 28 that Tolibov should be freed from a detention center in the town of Istarafshan in the northern region of Sogd. But the Prosecutor General's Office in the capital Dushanbe has effectively blocked his release, the source said. Tolibov was jailed in April this year after criticizing a local prosecutor in three newspaper articles in 2004.
"The government's flagrant disregard for the country's highest judicial authority calls into question Tajikistan's commitment to the rule of law," said Ann Cooper, Executive Director of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "Jumaboy Tolibov must be freed immediately."
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Tajik09dec05na.html
Dated
Congo journalists not let to publish Rwanda interviews
afrol News, 3 January - A large group of Congolese journalists, who had travelled to the war ravaged North Kivu and Rwanda, was banned from publishing interviews they had made with Rwanda's President as they returned to Kinshasa. Congo government officials deplored that the journalist had been "shamelessly manipulated by the Kigali government."
From 20 to 24 December, a group of 11 journalists from various Kinshasa-based, privately-owned newspapers carried out a mission to Goma, capital of North Kivu province, to report on the armed conflict that rages in eastern Congo Kinshasa (DRC). The group also requested and was granted interviews with Rwandan authorities, including Foreign Minister Charles Morigande and President Paul Kagame.
http://www.afrol.com/articles/15121
No newspapers as journalists protest killing
afrol News / IRIN, 18 July - No newspapers were published in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Tuesday in protest at the killing of a reporter 10 days ago.
"A day without newspapers throughout the country; it is our way of protesting against those who want to muffle the freedom of the press and that of expression. We are not afraid of death, but we will continue doing our work," John Richard Kasonga, the secretary of the National Union of the Congolese Press, said.
At least 1,000 journalists took part in a demonstration on Monday in the capital Kinshasa, during which they presented a memorandum to the United Nations Mission in the DRC, MONUC, seeking its protection.
http://www.afrol.com/articles/20736
Russian Court Orders New Trial in Editor’s Killing
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: November 9, 2006
MOSCOW, Nov. 9 — Russia’s Supreme Court today overturned the acquittal of three men accused of involvement in the killing of Paul Klebnikov, the American who was editor of Forbes magazine here, and ordered a new trial.
The ruling revived a criminal case that appeared to have unraveled last May when a jury rejected prosecutors’ arguments and refused to convict Kazbek Dukozov and Musa Vakhayev, the two men charged with carrying out the killing in July 2004, as well as a third suspect, Fail Sadretdinov, who was charged with related crimes.
At the same time, the court’s ruling today underscored what some defense lawyers here have called a worrisome trend: the appeal and, frequently, the reversal of decisions by juries.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/09/world/europe/10russiacnd.html?ex=1320728400&en=e9827091ba5858f5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Newspaper Tribute to Anna Politkovskaya
By Judith Ingram
The Associated Press
Anna Politkovskaya's colleagues, supported by the independent Russian Union of Journalists and hundreds of domestic and foreign media outlets, published a newspaper Thursday devoted to the slain journalist, who focused on uncovering torture, abductions and other abuses against civilians in Chechnya.
The 16-page, tabloid-style paper included tributes to the journalist and rights activist, a sampling of her work, a list of 211 journalists killed in Russia between 1992 and the present, and her mother's recollections.
Raisa Mazepa recalled begging her daughter to be more cautious in her work.
"I remember she told me then: 'I understand, of course, that the sword of Damocles is always hanging over me. I understand that, but I don't want to give up,'" her mother was quoted as saying by Politkovskaya's newspaper Novaya Gazeta.
Thursday's newspaper also contained a rebuke to President Vladimir Putin, who on the day of Politkovskaya's funeral played down her influence on political life as "very minor." It reprinted government instructions to act to correct the problems raised in her stories. The paper said close to 40 criminal investigations had been opened on the basis of Politkovskaya's work.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/10/27/015.html
Azeri Radio Barred From Airing Foreign Programs
The Associated Press
BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Azeri authorities will bar local broadcasters from airing programs of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America starting next year, the country's broadcasting chief said.
The opposition media denounced the move as part of a government campaign against the freedom of speech.
Nushirrin Maharramov, head of the National Broadcasting Council, said Wednesday that local broadcasters lacked the necessary licenses to air programs of the foreign radio stations. The three radio stations would be barred from airing their programs through local broadcasters starting Jan. 1.
Maharramov said the BBC and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty would be able to continue broadcasting on frequencies allotted to them by Azeri authorities. He said authorities were ready to discuss providing a frequency to Washington-based Voice of America, which currently does not have one.
"We are ready to provide additional frequencies to foreign radio stations if necessary," he said.
The BBC World Service said in a statement that it was "watching the situation carefully" and wanted "to continue to offer our listeners in Azerbaijan independent and impartial news and information."
Asked why the foreign stations that had been using local broadcasters for years were barred from doing that now, Maharramov responded that his National Broadcasting Council had been created three years ago and spent the first two years in tackling organizational issues.
"We have stepped up our activities during the last year," he said.
Editors of leading opposition newspapers and media freedom advocates issued a statement late Tuesday voicing concern about official plans to end foreign broadcasts.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/10/27/013.html
In an idealist world
Are our researchers into terrorism being appropriately critical or merely hypocritical, ask David Martin Jones and Carl Ungerer
… Meanwhile, a brief cruise through the University of Adelaide's e-journal Borderlands regales the unwary reader with titles such as Terror Australis: Security, Terror and the "War on Terror" Discourse or New Languages: Power, Feeling and Communication. Opening a few of these articles, moreover, we discover that critical terror study requires no research into the evolution, ideology or strategic thinking of transnational non-state actors such as al-Qa'ida or its regional affiliates.
Instead, critical engagement is a euphemism for an assault on the Australian, British and US government responses to terrorism, viewed from this perspective as a disturbing new international phenomenon.
Thus, Katrina Lee Koo of the Australian National University informs us that "the ease in which the US war on terror discourse has been assimilated into the discourse and practice of Australia's security reflects the enduring commitments that both have to notions of statism, permanent threat and insecurity and the acceptance of violence against those who may threaten us". She concludes that the war on terror, therefore, has merely "reinforced an unethical practice of security".
In a similar but lucidity-challenged vein, Anthony Burke (University of NSW), in an essay on social identities that also doubles as a chapter in his oddly titled book Beyond Security, Ethics and Violence: War against the Other (2006), explores the relationship between Freedom's Freedom: American Enlightenment and Permanent War.
Burke maintains, or more precisely rambles, that an "onto-technology of freedom through US history, the Cold War and the war on terror and considering its functional mirroring by the Islamist threat" exposes "the multiple dangers posed by the aggressive assertion of a simultaneously instrumental and universalising image of historical action and inevitability that rejects any restriction of its powers and any responsibility for their effect".
In a more coherent effort in the Carnegie Council's journal Ethics and International Affairs, Burke reveals the target of this critical assault is the modern liberal democratic state and its "violent and exclusivist" understanding of sovereignty that lingers "like a latent illness in the very depths of modern cosmopolitanism". In the biographical notes accompanying this article, Burke informs us he is working on an ARC-funded project on the politics and ethics of the use of force.
We can derive from Burke's oeuvre what this new ethical perspective reveals: namely, terrorism is our fault and the use of military force is unethical and unnecessary. According to this distorted view of transnational terror, state discourses of security have served only to reinforce a process "othering" Islamic radicalism. Othering, critical theory's favourite gerund and key explanatory tool, reveals that the modern state "ultimately secures sovereignty, physically and existentially, through violence against and alienation from the Other".
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20615979-12332,00.html
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