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Cuba supports press freedom
“You cannot kill truth by murdering journalists,” said Tubal Páez, president of the Journalist Union of Cuba. One hundred and fifty Cuban and South American journalists, ambassadors, politicians, and foreign guests gathered at the Jose Marti International Journalist Institute to honor the 50th anniversary of the death of Carlos Bastidas Arguello —the last journalist killed in Cuba. Carlos Bastidas was only 23 years of age when he was assassinated by Fulgencia Batista’s secret police after having visited Fidel Castro’s forces in the Sierra Maestra Mountains. Edmundo Bastidas, Carlos’ brother, told about how a river of changed flowed from the Maestra (teacher) mountains, symbolized by his brother’s efforts to help secure a new future for Cuba.
The celebration in Havana was held in honor of World Press Freedom Day, which is observed every year in May. World Press Freedom day was proclaimed by the UN in 1993 to honor journalists who have lost their lives reporting the news, and to defend media freedom worldwide.
During my five days in Havana, I met with dozens of journalists, communication studies faculty and students, union representatives and politicians. The underlying theme of my visit was to determine the state of media freedom in Cuba and to build a better understanding between media democracy activists in the US and those in Cuba.
I toured the two main radio stations in Havana, Radio Rebelde and Radio Havana. Both have Internet access to multiple global news sources including CNN, Reuters, Associated Press and BBC with several newscasters pulling stories for public broadcast. Over 90 municipalities in Cuba have their own locally run radio stations, and journalists report local news from every province.
During the course of several hours in each station I was interviewed on the air about media consolidation and censorship in the US and was able to ask journalists about censorship in Cuba as well. Of the dozens I interviewed all said that they have complete freedom to write or broadcast any stories they choose. This was a far cry from the Stalinist media system so often depicted by US interests.
Nonetheless it did became clear that Cuban journalists share a common sense of a continuing counter-revolutionary threat by US financed Cuban-Americans living in Miami. This is not an entirely unwarranted feeling in that many hundreds of terrorist actions against Cuba have occurred with US backing over the past fifty years. In addition to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, these attacks include the blowing up of a Cuban airlines plane in 1976 resulting in the deaths of seventy-three people, the starting in 1981 of an epidemic of dengue fever that killed 158 people and several hotel bombings in the 1990s one of which resulted in the death of an Italian tourist.
In the context of this external threat, Cuban journalists quietly acknowledge that some self-censorship will undoubtedly occur regarding news stories that could be used by the “enemy” against the Cuban people. Nonetheless, Cuban journalists strongly value freedom of the press and there was no evidence of overt restriction or government control ...."
By Peter Phillips “You cannot kill truth by murdering journalists,” said Tubal Páez, president of the Journalist Union of Cuba. One hundred and fifty Cu... more -
Legendary BBC journalist dies
Veteran journalist Sir Charles Wheeler, the BBC's longest-serving foreign correspondent, has died at the age of 85 after suffering from lung cancer.
A reporter, presenter and producer, he covered stories such as the assassination of Martin Luther King and Watergate when based in Washington.
He spent eight years in the US capital, also reporting on the shooting of presidential candidate Robert Kennedy.
He was considered "a legend", BBC director general Mark Thompson said.
"His integrity, his authority and his humanity graced the BBC's airwaves over many decades," he added.
"He is utterly irreplaceable but like everyone else, I am privileged to have worked with him."
,,,,Propper old school,,,,, Legend !
Veteran journalist Sir Charles Wheeler, the BBC's longest-serving foreign correspondent, has died at the age of 85 after suffering fro... more -
Government arrests more as tension mounts in Turkey
Political tensions rose Tuesday across Turkey as police seized two retired generals, a prominent journalist and others accused of plotting to overthrow the government and prosecutors undertook a court case to ban the ruling party.
The developments dramatize the sharp and serious political tensions between the country's ruling party and its outspoken critics from the nation's secularist establishment.
Since autumn, police have been arresting and jailing people accused of being part of Ergenekon, an alleged plot to overthrow the government. During the effort, there has been harassment of journalists, and news reports have said many people are being held without charge.
On Tuesday, police made 22 arrests in Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya and Trabzon, according to Turkey's semi-official Anadolu Agency, which said its information came from prosecutors. Three other people were being sought, the agency said.
Political tensions rose Tuesday across Turkey as police seized two retired generals, a prominent journalist and others accused of plot... more -
Journalist behind three murders he reported on?
"The journalist, Vlado Taneski, is accused of raping, torturing and killing three elderly women in the south-western town of Kicevo [Macedonia]. Macedonian police began to suspect him after he included details in his reports that they had not made public. Other men have reportedly already been convicted of the first two murders. The third was committed last month.
Mr Taneski, 56, has not yet been charged with any offence, police said.
They allege that he kidnapped and abused the women before cutting them into pieces and dumping them in plastic bags.
"He is also suspected of being involved in... [the disappearance of] a 78-old female who is still missing," said police spokesman Ivo Kotevski. "All victims were found naked, strangled, wrapped with phone cables," the spokesman said. "The women were sexually and physically abused. For example, the last victim, a 65-year old female, was found with 13 deep wounds on her skull and multiple rib fractures."
All the women apparently had similarities to the suspect's late mother, with whom he reportedly had a poor relationship.
"All victims were elderly females with poor education who had worked as cleaners. They all were from the same neighbourhood of Kicevo," Mr Kotevski said.
Mr Taneski's editor at the Utrinski Vesnik newspaper told the Associated Press: "We are all shocked with this. I know him as an exceptionally quiet man and I would never believe that he is capable of doing something like that"." "The journalist, Vlado Taneski, is accused of raping, torturing and killing three elderly women in the south-western town of Kicevo [M... more -
Four charged with Russian journalist's murder
Formal charges were filed Wednesday against four men accused in connection with the 2006 killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Russian investigators said.
Three men were charged with involvement in Polikovskaya's murder while an officer from the Federal Security Service, the FSB, faces charges of extortion and abuse of office, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. The four have been held since their arrests last August.
Politkovskaya, 48, was shot to death in her central Moscow apartment building in October 2006. Colleagues believe her murder was linked to her work reporting on abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya.
One suspect, Sergei Khadzhikurbanov, is a former police officer. Two others, brothers Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, are from Chechnya.
The committee said the charges against the FSB officer, Lt. Col. Pavel Ryaguzov, relate to other crimes. It wasn't immediately clear whether Wednesday's charges were somehow connected to Politkovskya's murder. Authorities previously have accused Ryaguzov of giving Politkovskaya's killers her address.
The committee did not cite an alleged motive for Politkovskaya's killing or specify the suspects' roles in her murder. A separate probe into the suspected shooter Rustam Makhmudov, who remains at large, will continue, the Investigative Committee said Wednesday. He is the oldest of the Makhmudov brothers.
Charges against several others, including former Chechnya district administrator Shamil Burayev, were dropped, the committee said.
Politkovskaya's colleagues at the Novaya Gazeta newspapers accused authorities of deliberately undermining the investigation by releasing details about the case before it reaches trial. Formal charges were filed Wednesday against four men accused in connection with the 2006 killing of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Rus... more -
Gaza journalists protest the killing of Reuters cameraman
Journalists protest in Gaza and call upon Israel to explain the killing of Reuters cameraman, Fadel Shana, two months ago.
Foreign and local journalists staged a protest in Gaza City exactly two months after the 24-year-old Palestinian cameraman was killed by an Israeli tank shell.
An Israeli government spokesman says the cameraman wasn't identified as journalist, despite clear markings.
An independent investigation commissioned by the London-based news agency found that no fighting or militant activity was taking place in the area at the time, leaving unanswered the key question of why the tank opened fire. Journalists protest in Gaza and call upon Israel to explain the killing of Reuters cameraman, Fadel Shana, two months ago. ... more -
Tim Russert dies at 58
Tim Russert, who became one of America's leading political journalists as the host of NBC's "Meet the Press," died Friday, according to the network. He was 58.
The network said he collapsed at work Friday. He was taken to Washington's Sibley Memorial Hospital where he died, the hospital confirmed.
Colleague and former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw broke the news on the network Friday shortly after 3:40 p.m., saying Russert had just returned from a family vacation in Italy to celebrate the graduation of his son, Luke, from Boston College.
Russert joined the network in 1984 and quickly established himself as the face of the network's political coverage, eventually becoming senior vice president and Washington bureau chief of NBC news.
In 1985, Russert supervised live broadcasts of the "Today" show from Rome, negotiating an appearance by Pope John Paul II -- a first for American television.
Russert, who also served as a political analyst for cable network MSNBC, took the helm of "Meet the Press" in 1991, turning the long-running Sunday-morning interview program into the most-watched show of its kind in the United States.
Tim Russert, who became one of America's leading political journalists as the host of NBC's "Meet the Press," died Friday, according t... more -
DJ arrested for selling pre-release albums on eBay
In what is thought will become the first prosecution in the U.K. involving pre-release music, a London-based DJ and music critic has been arrested on suspicion of theft and money laundering in connection with his alleged selling of 150 pre-release albums on eBay, according to a statement from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a record label trade group. In what is thought will become the first prosecution in the U.K. involving pre-release music, a London-based DJ and music critic has b... more
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Blasphemy means death for Afghan journalist
I feel sorry for this guy ...
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"Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolb...
Field of Nightmares
A conversation with climate journalist Elizabeth Kolbert
By David Roberts
10 Apr 2006
Over the past year, a perfect storm of scientific studies, dire weather events, and media coverage lifted global warming onto the mainstream national agenda. No writing had more impact than a series of closely observed pieces in The New Yorker by journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, which have now been collected and expanded into a book: Field Notes From a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change.
Click link to read more and to Read a review of the book.
_______________________________
from TouchArt.net and OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com Field of Nightmares A conversation with climate journalist Elizabeth Kolbert By David Roberts 10 Apr 2006 ... more -
Reverend Wright and The White (Media) Double Standard
"...This is crazy; this is wrong -- white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren't.
Which means it is all about race, isn't it? Wright's offensive opinions and inflammatory appearances are judged differently. He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettle some people, and says some things so outlandish and ill-advised that he finally leaves Obama no choice but to end their friendship. We are often exposed to the corroding acid of the politics of personal destruction, but I've never seen anything like this--this wrenching break between pastor and parishioner before our very eyes. Both men no doubt will carry the grief to their graves. All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said "beware the terrible simplifiers."
--Bill Moyers (Journal) "...This is crazy; this is wrong -- white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren't. ... more -
Justice Department Launches Web Site to Attack “Media Shield” Bill
The Justice Department has set up a web page at this link http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/media-shield.htm
were “the Bush administration has outlined its concerns with proposed media shield legislation. This page provides letters, testimony, public statements and views from officials throughout the government expressing their concerns with the proposed media shield legislation.” This was quoted from the Department of Justice’s web page.
Problem: This is a taxpayer funded Department of Justice web page that the Bush administration is using to quash S.2035, the Free Flow of Information Act of 2007, aka, the Media Shield Law.
A quote from the Society for Professional Journalists http://www.spj.org/
"A federal shield law has become essential now that prosecutors appear less constrained about hauling journalists before courts and grand juries," said SPJ President Irwin Gratz, a radio news anchor with the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. "Courts are proving little help either, setting aside the partial protections recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Branzburg v. Hayes ruling."
Leahy, Specter Urge Senate Action On Media Shield Bill http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200803/030608e.html
To contact the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs / 202-514-2007
The 1st Amendment is under attack by the Bush Administration!!
The Justice Department has set up a web page at this link http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/media-shield.htm ... more -
The news hurts
Fire, water, snow, skateboards, wrestlers, paint, cats, drunks and grapes are just some of the dangers that your average intrepid reporter faces on an average day. Fire, water, snow, skateboards, wrestlers, paint, cats, drunks and grapes are just some of the dangers that your average intrepid repo... more
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U.S. Stamp Commemorates Chicano Martyr
"Lost in the controversy over his death and the violent repression of the National Chicano Moratorium rally (attended by 30,000 people) against the Vietnam War – was the historic nature of [Ruben Salazar's] journalism. Clearly, he was a journalist before his time and what he reported in the El Paso Herald Post and the Los Angeles Times, from 1955 through 1970, still seems relevant to this day. He covered an unpopular war; Vietnam. He also covered Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the upheaval in Mexico in the 1960s. He also wrote about the anti-war movement, black-brown relations, police repression, the border, the inhumane treatment of migrants, the trouble in the lettuce fields, and social and educational inequalities...
While not an activist, his journalism brought the emerging Chicano civil rights movement to the nation’s attention. He defined for the nation – in language that mainstream society understood – what it meant to be Chicano."
"Lost in the controversy over his death and the violent repression of the National Chicano Moratorium rally (attended by 30,000 people... more -
Global news-reporting infoporn
See which parts of the world receive the most 'attention' from major western mainstream media outlets in a pretty and colourful fashion.
See which parts of the world receive the most 'attention' from major western mainstream media outlets in a pretty and colourful fashio... more -
The War Endures, but Where's the Media?
We've seen a decline in coverage because sending journalists to Iraq is increasingly expensive and dangerous.
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Early release for Belarusian newspaper journalist
27 February 2008
A former deputy editor of a Belarusian newspaper has been released early from prison. On 22 February 2008, the Supreme Court of Belarus commuted Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou's three-year prison sentence to three months.
This decision resulted in his immediate release from the high security prison where he was being held. Amnesty International has welcomed his release, but called for his conviction to be overturned.
Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou, former deputy editor of Zhoda (Today) newspaper, was sentenced by a Minsk city court on 18 January 2008. He had been found guilty of "inciting racial, national, or religious enmity or discord" according to Article 130.1 of the Belarusian Criminal Code.
He was sentenced for publishing the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 in an article reporting the protests following their original publication in Denmark in September 2005. Amnesty International regarded Alyaksandr Zdzvizhkou a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression. 27 February 2008 ... more -
Deal to free CBS journalists in Iraq
Negotiators have reportedly reached a deal and CBS' British reporter and his Iraqi translator will be freed - potentially in the next few days or even hours. Hareth al-Athari, the head of the Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Basra office said "we have a dispute with the British forces in Basra but that doesn't mean we have a dispute with the British people," and that the kidnappers had agreed to release the prisoners.
If they are let free, they can count themselves among the lucky: the Committee to Protect Journalists says 125 journalists and 49 support workers have been killed in Iraq since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
**Update: So far, the interpretor has been released, and negotiations are ongoing over the British reporter.
AP report here: http://tinyurl.com/2m3xwx Negotiators have reportedly reached a deal and CBS' British reporter and his Iraqi translator will be freed - potentially in the next ... more -
Search for journalists kidnapped in Basra
A British reporter and his Iraqi translator, both working for CBS, were led away from their hotel by a gang of 10 gunmen on Sunday. Security forces have launched an "intensive operation" to try and find them, but so far, no luck. A British reporter and his Iraqi translator, both working for CBS, were led away from their hotel by a gang of 10 gunmen on Sunday. S... more
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Jonah Goldberg vs. Jon Stewart
Goldberg, in an interview tries to argue the rise of liberal fascism in America. Now when I saw Naomi Wolf's take on it, she was very intelligent about and actually opened my ears to what's happening in the US. However, Goldberg is using labels to assume that practically everything is fascism, right down to organic food.
Watch this humorous yet horrifying interview. Goldberg, in an interview tries to argue the rise of liberal fascism in America. Now when I saw Naomi Wolf's take on it, she was very ... more
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