[01 May 03]
REPORTER
REPORTS ON
REPORTERS
REPORT
Reporters Without Borders, an international news media watchdog, has warned that Press freedom is in danger in more than half of the world's countries with a release of its new annual report.
Writing in its latest 587-page Freedom of the Press Throughout the World 2003 report on the state of the world's media, the agency listed Press freedom violations in 156 countries spanning five continents.
In Africa, for example, fearing the emergence of a real opposition force, national leaders are often responsible for the threats against or censorship of the media. President Robert Mugabe is cited as the most striking example.
In Zimbabwe, the report said, the situation went from bad to worse in 2002. More than 30 journalists were detained and several foreign correspondents forced to leave the country.
But it noted that the independent media did not give up reporting the government's abuses.
Worldwide, it said that 25 journalists and media professionals were killed last year just for doing their jobs or expressing their opinions. At least half of them died at the hands of regime thugs, armed gangs, crime organisations or representatives of the private interests they had upset.
It said the number of journalists taken in for questioning had increased by almost 40 percent, while the number assaulted or threatened had doubled since 2001. All in all in 2002, at least 1420 journalists were beaten up, abducted, charged by the police, harassed or threatened with death and around 400 news media organisations were censored.
The report said 155 journalists, media contributors and cyber-dissidents were today behind bars globally simply because they had chosen to promote the free flow of information.
Australia ranked 12th in the listings behind Iceland, Finland and Canada whilst the UK rated 21st.
http://www.allafrica.com

[01 may 03]
FLUNG DUNG
Adbusters lobbed a stinker amongst independent filmmakers in its last issue, suggesting that the applicants involved in a DaimlerChrysler film festival/ ad contest, were selling out. The competition involved creating a short branded film to encapsulate the emotive energy of a freakin' car: the winner skipping away with a million dollar deal to make the next DaimlerChrysler funded blockbuster. Whoo-ee, did it get nasty in the editorial In- box.
http://www.adbusters.org

[22 may 03]
STRONG ARM OF
CENSORSHIP
CHINA – A court in Yantai, Shandong Province, sentenced Jae Hyun Seok, who works regularly for The New York Times and South Korea's Geo magazine, to a two-year prison term on charges of human trafficking.
Seok was arrested on January 18 while photographing North Korean refugees attempting to board fishing boats in an operation in Yantai as part of a journalistic project documenting the plight of North Korean refugees in China, according to his family and colleagues.
In recent years, hundreds of thousands of North Korean refugees have entered China to escape food shortages and political repression at home. From China, they often try to seek asylum in a third country. The Chinese government views the refugees as "economic migrants" and regularly repatriates them to North Korea, where they can face imprisonment and other types of persecution.
"By sentencing Jae Hyun Seok, China's leaders are sending a clear message to all journalists that they are not welcome to report from China on stories of international importance," said the Centre for the Protection of Journalists executive director Ann Cooper.
http://www.cpj.org

[23 may 03]
INDONESIA AFRAID OF OBSERVATION
ACEH – When the Indonesian government declared martial law in Aceh on Monday, May 19, beginning a massive military offensive to crush the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the military commander and head of the martial law administration in Aceh, warned journalists that they should neither report on statements issued by GAM leaders nor carry news that supports the separatist cause.
"There should be no reports from GAM and no reports that praise GAM," Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said.
The major general also ordered journalists to adjust their coverage. "I want all news published to contain the spirit of nationalism," he said, according to the national English-language daily Jakarta Post. "Put the interests of the unitary state of Indonesia first." Suwarya added that he will soon issue rules governing press coverage, and that all journalists will have to be accredited by the military command in Aceh.
Already, military officials have issued warnings to the regional daily Serambi Indonesia and the private broadcaster Metro TV for carrying reports considered to favour GAM. Meanwhile the private radio station Nikoya FM, based in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, received a telephone call from someone claiming to be a GAM commander threatening that the rebels would kill a reporter if the station did not start carrying more balanced news.
http://www.cpj.org

[28 may 03]
MEDIA MEAL DEAL
US – Media companies around the US are salivating at the thought of the outcome of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) meeting on June 2. In line with the rampant deregulation (of rules set up to limit the size and power of media conglomerates) that has occurred in recent times, it is anticipated the FCC will drop the remaining cross-ownership restrictions.
What does this mean? An even more concentrated ownership of all media, which evidently leads straight to normalising censorship, increasing bias and leaving behind a ridiculously shallow representation of opinion. Can’t wait.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com

[28 may 03]
GIVE THIS MAN A PRIZE
NEW YORK – Jayson Blair, the ex-New York Times reporter and Sydney Morning Herald correspondent, who stepped down from his position at the beginning of this month due to being completely busted for plagiarising material from other journalists and generally lying his pants off (for example, he wrongly claimed in a news story to have lost a cousin in the NY World Trade Centre attack), has recently spoke about his ordeal with The New York Observer. And yes it has been an ordeal- it seems poor ol’ Jas did what he did due to drugs. Now he has a publicist, a detox clinic and is half way through a ‘therapeutic’ tell-all book. Jas, you crack me up.
http://www.gvnews.net

[27 may 03]
MISSING JOURNOS
FINALLY INVESTIGATED
U.K. – The Ministry of Defence has finally bowed to calls for a formal investigation into the disappearance of two ITN journalists, Fred Nerac and Hussein Osman, more than two months after they went missing in southern Iraq.
Neither has been seen since March 22, when they went missing in an incident near Az Zubayr in which ITN correspondent Terry Lloyd was killed.
ITN accused the military of a cover-up after it refused to provide an official account of the incident, despite evidence that US and British units were on the spot.
On May 9, Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon told ITN he could only launch a formal investigation if there was evidence that a war crime had been committed.
But today he said fresh evidence has come to light suggesting this was the case, as he confirmed to ITN that a Royal Military Police investigation into the disappearance of French cameraman Nerac and Lebanese translator Osman is now underway.
Nerac's wife, Fabienne, has given numerous press conferences and interviews in her quest to discover what has happened to her husband, including confronting the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, at a press conference in Brussels.
Mr Powell gave her a "personal promise" that US authorities would investigate the matter. She has also received the full backing of the French president, Jacques Chirac.
http://www.media.guardian.co.uk

[26 may 03]
EDITOR ON HUNGER STRIKE
MORROCCO – Jailed newspaper editor Ali Lmrabet, was rushed to Rabat's Avicenne hospital today and put on a drip. Lmrabet, who was imprisoned on 21 May, has been on a hunger strike since 6 May. His physician said he is having difficulty talking and can no longer walk.
"The Moroccan authorities are responsible for Lmrabet's health. They will bear a heavy responsibility if anything unfortunate happens. The king cannot remain indifferent to what happens to him. This is no longer just about press freedom, a man's life is at stake," Robert Ménard, of Reporters Sans Frontiers, stated.
The editor of two satirical weeklies, the French-language Demain Magazine and its Arabic-language version Douman, Lmrabet was sentenced to four years in prison on 21 May for "insulting the person of the king", "offence against territorial integrity" and "offence against the monarchy" specifically a portrayal in a series of political cartoons. The court also fined him 20,000 dirhams (about 2,000 euros) and banned his two weeklies.
When he began his hunger strike, Lmrabet said he was acting to defend his rights, to put an end to repeated acts of intimidation against his printer and others who would otherwise be ready to print his weeklies, and in order to be able to enjoy the right to freedom of movement.
http://www.rsf.org

[23 may 03]
POSH RAG
BECOMES TAME PET
The lapsing of critical observation in The New Yorker magazine has created some cries of woe amongst its readership, and cast a wider reflection to the media in general.
The growing number of articles that the magazine has run since 9/11 on the subject of terrorism and the Middle East have been increasingly skewed. Whenever The New Yorker uses the word "terror" or one of its cognates, for instance, it is almost always in an Arab or Muslim context.
While a search turns up numerous references in the magazine to Palestinian, Egyptian and Pakistani terrorism since the Twin Towers attack, it turns up no references to US or Israeli terrorism or, for that matter, to terrorism on the part of Christians or Jews. A search over the same period reveals that the word "fundamentalism" appears almost always in an Islamic context as well.
The New Yorker was once a fountain of power and policy critique in which the middle class could get their feet wet. Allah knows, the average money laden Yank can do with the presentation of a diversity of opinion in discourse. Maybe CNN will take up the slack?
http://www.thenation.com