Gunmen killed at least 21 people, a dozen journalists reported among them, in the Philippines today.

From CNN:

Some of the bodies were beheaded, according to Filipino media. The details suggest the daytime abductions were politically motivated, and the military has said the gunmen were loyal to the province’s incumbent governor.

Those killed include a gubernatorial candidate’s wife and one of his sisters, according to two of his family members who spoke on local television. The death toll also included at least 12 journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders, a media freedom organization.

Also available as สงสัยในสองมาตรฐานขององค์กรนิรโทษกรรมสากล

Yesterday PPT posted on the Asian Human Rights Commission statement on the use of the Computer Crimes Act as a substitute for the lese majeste law and Reporters Without Borders released a report the day before criticizing the use of this other laws that limit expression.

PPT assumes that because these “crimes” are political and related to the monarchy in Thailand, that Amnesty International will say nothing. That has been its “policy.”

But what are they doing elsewhere? On 16 November 2009, there was this:

Urgent Action 308/09 – Prisoners of conscience – Bloggers Jailed in Azerbaijan: URGENT ACTION APPEAL – From Amnesty International USA

Two “activists and bloggers” are said by AI to “have been sentenced to two and a half years and two years respectively in an unfair trial. Amnesty International believes the charges against them were fabricated and they have been imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.” One of the men posted “a satirical video … criticizing the Azerbaijani government … on the video-sharing website YouTube.”

Interestingly, in this case, the men are jailed on charges that don’t relate to their postings. However, AI considers them prisoners of conscience because the government has targeted them for their political views.

So can anyone at Amnesty International explain why Thailand is different for the organization? How is the jailing of people in Thailand different? PPT sees that the details are different. In fact, the use of the law is harsher in Thailand (jailing for 20 years, reduced to 10 – Suwicha Thakor) and being held for long periods without bail (Suwicha and Nat Sattayapornpisut), but political “crimes” are very similar. Indeed, in Thailand a special law has been created to facilitate intimidation and to allow for people to be “imprisoned solely for exercising their right to freedom of expression.” That law was put in place by an illegitimate, military-backed government. The trials of these Thais could never be considered fair.

We wonder how it is that Amnesty International feels comfortable operating with such double standards.

Readers may want to ask AI, but be aware that emailing AI produces, in PPT’s experience, no response at all: Amnesty International USA, 600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl, Washington DC 20003, Email: uan@aiusa.org, http://www.amnestyusa.org/, Phone: 202.544.0200, Fax: 202.675.8566

Also available as กรรมาธิการสิทธิเอเชีย และผู้สื่อข่าวไร้พรมแดน: ทำผิดทางคอมพิวเตอร์ คือทำผิดฐานหมิ่นฯ

On 20 November 2009, the Asian Human Rights Commission released a timely statement on the use of the Computer Crimes Act as a substitute for the lese majeste law and Reporters Without Borders released a report the day before criticizing the use of this and other laws that are meant to control and limit expression: “Harassment and intimidation are constantly employed to dissuade Internet users from freely expressing their views.”

Read the report on RWB at Prachatai, where some extra and useful links are included.

As PPT readers may have noticed, at our pages on Pending Cases and About Us, we also recognized this substitution. Some months ago we began including those charged with “national security” offenses under the Computer Crimes Act along with lese majeste cases.

AHRC mention five cases: the royals health rumors scapegoats Thatsaporn Rattanawongsa (arrested just a couple of days ago), Thiranan Vipuchanun, Khatha Pachachirayapong and Somjet Itthiworakul (arrested earlier in November), Prachatai’s webmaster Chiranuch Premchaiporn, charged back in March, and Suwicha Thakor, arrested in January, convicted in April and sentenced to 20 years jail, reduced to 10 after he finally agreed to plead guilty. RWB list others, including Nat Sattayapornpisut, arrested in October.

AHRC makes some excellent points, noting that negative publicity “over the cases against persons critical of its royal family, or persons claiming to act on the royals’ behalf” has caused the Democrat Party-led government to change tack and downplay lese majeste while using other means to repress and censor. It is added that the Justice Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga remarkably claimed that “Offences against the King, the Queen, the Heir-Apparent or the Regent are considered offences relating to the security of the Kingdom, not ‘lese-majesty’… I am certain that each state as well as Thailand has its own way of interpreting what constitutes offences relating to national security. Therefore, whoever violates the law of the Kingdom will be fairly charged and prosecuted according to the law of the Kingdom.”

As AHRC points out, the Computer Crimes Act “is an excellent substitute” for a repressive government that wants to appear to international community as one that favors the “rule of law.” As is clear, they use this law to harass, intimidate and to lock up those who oppose the national ideology.

AHRC notes that the Computer Crimes Act “was passed in the final hours of the military-appointed proxy legislature following the 2006 coup, and … was designed as a tool to suppress dissent, not responsibly deal with Internet crime in Thailand. Its ambiguous provisions, notably the section under which all these persons have been charged, allow for the prosecution of any type of thought crime on the disingenuous pretext that the crime is one of technology rather than one of expression or of ideas. Therefore, the state can claim that it is bringing people to court for one type of crime, while sending a clear message to a society that the real offence is altogether different.”

Dangers for Journalists Who Expose Environmental Issues

September 19, 2009

Environmentalists who are fully committed to protecting the environment, particularly the Amazon Rainforest, are ubiquitous in presence. Yet, awareness of the hindrances that some of these activists must overcome, is not typically highlighted.

However, this article underscores the consequences that some journalists endure due to examining topics such as deforestation. These unwanted witnesses are viewed as a threat to companies that rely on the Amazon rainforest’s resources. An astounding thirteen cases of journalists and bloggers have been censored, threatened, jailed, attacked, or even killed by accentuating the wrongdoings that are occurring everyday to the rainforest. Thus Reporters Without Borders has provided encouragement to the continued efforts of the journalists by publishing a new photography book, “Nature: 100 photos for press freedom” to not only defend journalists but also to support press freedom throughout the world.

Click on the link to read more about this issue!

–Susan Lee

Chief Minister Navin Patnaik sitting nonchalant over Orissa scribes’ request to save Sambad’s rural reporter Laxman Choudhury from false cases cooked up by the Police, an international body of reporters, Reporters without Borders, has expressed deep concern over havoc wrecked on Freedom of press in Orissa and has, in a communication addressed to the Governor of the State, urged upon him to rise to the occasion.

We reproduce the communication:

H.E. Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare
Governor of Orissa
Raj Bhawan
Bhubaneswar 751 008
Orissa

Paris, 6 November 2009

Subject: Call for Laxman Choudhury’s release

Dear Governor,

Reporters Without Borders, an organisation that defends press freedom worldwide, would like to share with you its deep concern about the fate of reporter Laxman Choudhury of the daily newspaper Sambad, who was arrested on 20 September.

As you probably know, Mr. Choudhury was charged with sedition after being found in possession of Maoist leaflets. He is now waiting to appear before the Orissa high court.

He had received the leaflets like a dozen other journalists. The Maoists send their press releases and leaflets to reporters on a regular basis. They constitute news material and receiving them can under no circumstances be regarded as evidence of Maoist links. For these reasons, we consider that Mr. Choudhury’s arrest by the Gajapati police is arbitrary and unjustifiable, and violates the Indian constitution.

We are afraid he may have been the victim of an act of revenge by local authorities who were alarmed by his revelations. Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik promised to a delegation of four journalists that he would order an investigation into the allegations that Mr. Choudhury’s arrest was an act of revenge. But since then we have received no information about this investigation or how far it has advanced.

As the Orissa high court has not issued any ruling in this case, we urge you to use your constitutional authority to ensure that the petition is taken up by the court promptly so that Mr. Choudhury can be released.

I thank you in advance for the attention you give to this request.

Respectfully,
Jean-François Julliard
Secretary-General

BRITNEY, JACKO, JESUS AND RON JEREMY

“Dear User, عفواً، الموقع المطلوب غير متاح. Sorry, the requested page is unavailable. إن كنت ترى أن هذه الصفحة ينبغي أن لا تُحجب تفضل بالضغط هنا. If you believe the requested page should not be blocked please click here. لمزيد من المعلومات عن خدمة الإنترنت في المملكة العربية السعودية، يمكنك زيارة الموقع التالي: For more information about internet service in Saudi Arabia, please click here: www.internet.gov.sa”

If the screen 0n your desktop shows this message, you might have typed one or more of these words on your search engine…breast, boobs, tits, ass, butt, sex, Britney Spears, Micheal Jackson, Jesus Christ, Ron Jeremy, jew, Judaism, anal sex, rimming, fellatio, gay, homosexual, Madonna, Pamela Anderson, Tommy Lee, bisexual, erotic, erection, ménage à trois, blow job, Pope John Paul, pig, Piglet, pork, bacon, pork chop, Budha, Budhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Scientology, glory hole, butt plugs, hymen, penis, vagina, foreskin, clitoris, Playboy, Playguy, Basic Instinct, Babe: Pig in the city movie, honcho, Seancody, slut, hooker, Chichilarue, transsexual, transvestite, lesbians, dikes, semen, sexual intercourse, fuck, uncut, bottom boy, circumcised, cybersex, Paris Hilton, Ana Nicole Smith, dildos, twinks, fags, deflower, virgin, vibrator, dominatrix, hoar, erectile dysfunction, naked, stripper, blackjack, poker, casino, BangBus, Girls Gone Wild, xxx, crucifix, holy rosary, bible, Christianity, Mother Mary, sadomasochism, David Bowie, Boy George, George Micheal, Israel, masturbation, kinky, bdsm, fetish, leather daddy, bareback, hand job and now even the new term “gay chicken” and Oprah’s “vajayjay”

BABE: PIG IN THE CITY

In 2000 my second job was in Riyadh for more than a year, in Dhahran for 2 years, and it’s really hard for a movie buff like me to search info in the net when you’re a graphic designer who likes American Movies, and I’m not even talking about porn,  just mainstream movies like “BABE: Pig in the City”, even my friends who are doctors and nurses can’t search for “breast”cancer because of the word “breast”-even for medical research purposes your not allowed to see tits. Saudi Arabia ranked 161st out of 173 countries for “freedom of the press” according to Reporters Without Borders in 2008. Going online in Saudi Arabia where internet censorship is common is rather like visiting a parallel universe run by the world’s strictest, most bigoted parents. Entire sites disappear without warning. Keyword filtering and ISP blacklists prevent you from accessing any sites that the kingdom doesn’t think you should see. The most aggressive censorship focused on pornography, drug use, gambling, religious conversion of Muslims, and filtering circumvention tools.

SEXUAL NATURE

Incoming press is strictly controlled by censorship officials, primarily for content of sexual nature. Photos of women in books, magazines, and product packaging are routinely censored with black markers if any skin is showing and sometimes pages are just ripped right out. Meanwhile, books, videotapes and electronic media brought into the country may be subjected to censorship at customs. Pork in any form is prohibited, and so is pornography.

Other countries that have censorship in the internet and other medias are Belarus, Burma, Cuba, Iran, Libya, Maldive, Nepal, North Korea, Syria, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Turkmenistan and China.

Länger als einen Monat kein neuer Blogeintrag – dieser Zustand muss dringend beendet werden. Hier also eine Menge Links mit Taiwan-Bezug, die sich in der vergangenen Wochen angesammelt haben. Klicken und Lesen lohnt sich, es sind spannende Sachen dabei.

Und hübsch anzuschauende: Großartige Taiwan-Luftaufnahmen in HD (extra anklicken!), für Youtube-Verhältnisse eine atemberaubende Bildqualität:

Politik

Keine gute Sache: Laut dem neuesten Bericht von “Reporter ohne Grenzen” befindet sich Taiwans Pressefreiheit im Rückwärtsgang. Nachdem es um 23 Plätze zurückgefallen ist, steht Taiwan nun auf Platz 59 – hinter Chinas Sonderverwaltungszone Hongkong, Haiti, Papua-Neuguinea und einigen afrikanischen Ländern.

The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately-owned media while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom.

Journalisten berichten von versuchter Einflussnahme und Selbstzensur, um bloß China nicht zu verärgern. Taiwans Regierung ist sich keiner Schuld bewusst.

Auch die New York Times ist nicht so ganz glücklich mit Taiwans Kurs der letzten 1,5 Jahre:

Taiwan’s position as a de facto independent state seems to be morphing very slowly toward the “one country, two systems” status of Hong Kong. The process is not irreversible but the sentiments of those of mainland origin in the governing Nationalist Party, along with the self-interest of business groups and a widespread sense of economic vulnerability are all pushing the island toward accommodation with Beijing. (…) Taiwan lacks a strategic view of itself and how to balance relations with the Chinese mainland, the United States and the global economy with liberal democracy and de facto independence.

Die Wirtschaftswoche schickte ihren Peking-Korrespondenten nach Taiwan, um über die Wirtschaftssituation zu berichten. Er beschränkt sich glücklicherweise nicht nur auf Zahlen.

Wirtschaftlich sind Taiwan und die Volksrepublik heute schon eng verflochten, mehr als 80.000 taiwanische Unternehmen haben auf dem Festland investiert, annähernd 30 Prozent des Exports gehen zum großen Nachbarn. Doch vielleicht gerade darum fürchten viele Inselbewohner einen Ausverkauf an Peking und den Verlust der politischen Freiheit. Auch die Fremdenführerin Michelle Chu: „Wir fühlen uns eher als Taiwanesen, nicht als Chinesen!“

Bereits 2007 erschienen, habe ich diesen Text auf Spiegel Online erst jetzt entdeckt: Taiwans absurde politische Situation, schön anschaulich dargestellt.

Ein Staat mit 23 Millionen Einwohnern darf nicht in die Uno. Er hat nichts falsch gemacht, unterstützt weder Terroristen, noch überfällt er seine Nachbarn, ist sogar demokratisch und spendabel. Doch Taiwans Gegner heißt China.

Vorgestellt wird dort auch Taiwans Black-Metal-Band Chthonic, die sich nicht nur im übertragenen Sinn lautstark für Taiwan einsetzt. Frontmann Freddy Lim ist offenbar ein engagierter Staatsbürger, der zum Beispiel versuchte, die Uighuren-Führerin Rebya Kadeer nach Taiwan einzuladen (was von Taiwans Regierung verhindert wurde).

China

Die Volksrepublik, dieser sympathische Einparteien-Staat, hat ja kürzlich mit einer Stechschritt- und Raketen-Parade ihr 60-jähriges Bestehen gefeiert. Wieso das in Taiwan niemanden groß aufregt, und warum die beiden Regierungsparteien sich so gut verstehen, dazu hatte ich einen Radiobeitrag im Programm der Deutschen Welle.

Erstaunliche High Definition-Bilder der Parade in Peking, mit viel Slomo und Zeitraffer, kann man sich hier ansehen. Das NDR-Satiremagazin Extra 3 verwurstet die Parade zu einem leider nur leidlich witzigen “Was wäre, wenn das eine Tarantino-Inszenierung wäre?”

Ai Wei-wei, dessen Name in deutschen Medien stets falsch und damit vermeintlich lustig ausgesprochen wird, ist ein mutiger Mann. Der chinesische Künstler traut sich, den Mund aufzumachen und Missstände in seinem Land zu kritisieren. Dafür wurde er neulich zusammengeschlagen. Seine Reaktion: Er schreibt darüber in Time, zum Beispiel Sätze wie diesen:

The Party knows its system is vulnerable, that its credibility is weak and that it has become a mafia whose only unifying ideology is to hold on to power.

Wie Chinas KP sich an der Macht hält, hat der in Taipei lebende Demokratie-Aktivist Jerome Keating schön analysiert: Sieben Prinzipien des Machterhalts.

Make everyone feel they participate in rebuilding a distant glorious past. Destroy any conflicting histories of that past. Yet, in an age of globalization, internet etc. the glorious mythical Middle Kingdom of the Earth unfortunately comes across in reality as the Middle Kingdom of pollution, poison and propaganda. Still the court historian can find enough useful idiots at home and abroad to both romanticize the past and to glorify the present.

Außerdem fährt China gerade eine weltweite Medien-Offensive, um in der Berichterstattung positiver rüberzukommen. Das NDR-Medienmagazin Zapp über Die Image-Lüge der chinesischen Regierung.

Wie würde ein Angriff Chinas auf Taiwan aussehen? Verheerend, sagt dieser Text, denn Chinas Raketen werden immer treffsicherer. In wenigen Minuten wären alle Rollbahnen Taiwans zerstört und damit die Lufthoheit errungen.

Chinese air superiority would allow Beijing to attack military and civilian targets on the island while suffering acceptable losses and would be vital for any serious cross-strait invasion attempt. (…) it will prove increasingly difficult for Taiwan to protect its military and civilian infrastructures from heavy damage, even with American help. Despite the calm political climate currently prevailing across the Taiwan Strait, this is a sobering finding.

Einmal dem Dalai Lama die Hand geben, schon sind die Gefühle von mehr als einer Milliarde Chinesen offiziell verletzt. Pekings inflationäres Kollektiv-Schmollen nimmt eine Glosse in der Taipei Times aufs Korn:

China’s feelings had been officially hurt at least 140 times by a minimum of 42 countries and several organizations since Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) bandits came to power in 1949. (…) I, for one, am curious how the Chicoms can be so certain that the people have had their feelings trampled on — it’s not as if they regularly ask the proletariat for their opinion on issues of importance.

Noch mal Extra 3 über China, aber definitiv besser als der Beitrag oben: “Klaus” erklärt China.

Kultur

China als Gastland der diesjährigen Frankfurter Buchmesse hat auch Taiwans Situation ein klein wenig ins Blickfeld der Medien gerückt. In den Feuilletons sind einige Texte erschienen, die sich umfassender mit Taiwan befassen, als man das aus den Politik-Teilen gewohnt ist. Vorneweg der in Taipeh lebende Autor Stephan Thome, der für seinen (in Hessen angesiedelten) Debütroman “Grenzgang” gerade von allen Seiten höchstes Lob erfährt. In der Welt schreibt er über Taiwans “kulturelle Schizophrenie” und kommt zu dem nur allzu wahren Schluss:

Das eigentlich Erstaunliche ist das Desinteresse Europas. Ein Volk von 23 Millionen verweigert sich dem Machtanspruch Pekings, und unsere in die Dissidenten vom Festland geradezu verliebte Öffentlichkeit sieht weg.

Auch die FAZ machte eine Menge Platz frei, um Taiwans Kultur und Literatur ausführlich zu beleuchten.

In Ermangelung eines souveränen, voll handlungsfähigen Staats stellt sich den Taiwanern seit mehr als zwanzig Jahren die Frage: Wie können wir unsere mühsam errungene Demokratie und Eigenständigkeit gegenüber der Volksrepublik, die auf uns Anspruch erhebt, behaupten? In welchem Sinn gehören wir, wenn überhaupt, zu China, und was gehört außerdem noch zu uns? Was ist überhaupt „China“, abgesehen von der das Land zurzeit regierenden Kommunistischen Partei? So wird Taiwan für die Diskussion, was die chinesische Kultur zur Gegenwart beitragen kann, unentbehrlich.

In diesem Text wird bereits die Publizistin Lung Ying-tai erwähnt, deren “Großer Strom, großes Meer” über die verschwiegenen Massaker des chinesischen Bürgerkriegs auf der Buchmesse wohl die meiste Medienaufmerksamkeit erfahren hat. So schrieb der Asien-Korrespondent des Spiegel über dieses Werk, und die taz veröffentlichte ein ganzes Kapitel vorab.

Nun ist dieses Buch sicherlich lesenswert, die als “Taiwans Literatur-Star” gepriesene Frau Lung (die übrigens mit einem Deutschen verheiratet war und lange in Deutschland gelebt hatte) aber nicht ganz unumstritten. Eine von ihr initiierte (und nach ihr benannte) Stiftung hat sich zwar offiziell der Förderung der Zivilgesellschaft in Taiwan verschrieben, es gibt aber in Taipeh viele, die finden: Ihr eigentliches Ziel ist es, die Verständigung mit China zu fördern, jedenfalls kein “taiwanisches” Bewusstsein. Lung Ying-tais Familie stammt vom Festland und kam mit den KMT-Besatzungstruppen nach Taiwan. Sie selbst steht der KMT nahe und war Taipehs Kultur-Stadträtin, als der jetzige Präsident Ma Oberbürgermeister war. In einem Brief über die Korruptionsvorwürfe gegen den damaligen Präsidenten Chen Shui-bian (dem mittlerweile von der KMT-nahen Justiz der Schauprozess gemacht wurde) offenbarte sie 2006 ein etwas merkwürdiges Geschichts- und Demokratieverständnis. Ein Leser kommentiert den SPON-Artikel:

Es wäre interessant zu erfahren, was die Autorin über die Greueltaten der KMT in Taiwan schreibt, da sie ja über ihren Vater, der Teil der KMT-Armee war, Einsichten gehabt haben dürfte. Zumindest kann sie sich bestimmt gut in die Kinder der Parteielite in China einfühlen, da sie selber Teil eines solchen Systems war.

Mehr über Taiwan als über China dürfte man in dem Roman “Die Insel der Göttin” von Jade Y. Chen erfahren, der seit der Buchmesse “zum Sprung vom Undergroundtipp zum Bestseller ansetzt”, so Deutschlandradio Kultur.

Chen erzählt darin eine exemplarische Familiengeschichte, die Geschichte der Lins, in der die Kolonialgeschichte Taiwans als von den Japanern besetzte Insel ebenso beschrieben wird wie die Herrschaft der Kuomintang, in der bis 1987 der Leser eines Buches von Karl Marx im Gefängnis landen konnte.

Die Autorin war auch auf Lesereise in Deutschland unterwegs.

Sonstiges

Ein Fundstück bei 11 Freunde, dem Fußballmagazin für Leser, die gerne mitdenken. Der Fußball-Weltenbummler (und Journalist) Holger Obermann, der in über 30 Ländern tätig war, hat auch mal versucht, in Taiwan eine Fußball-Nationalmannschaft aufzubauen.

Eines Tages im Jahr 1975 fragte uns ein DFB-Funktionär bei einer Trainerfortbildung: »Meine Herren, wer von ihnen möchte nach Taiwan?« Taiwan? Meine Kollegen sahen sich an und schüttelten die Köpfe. Auf so ein Abenteuer in einem nach dem Bürgerkrieg autoritär geführten Land wollte sich niemand einlassen. Ich schon. Es sollte der Startschuss für meine Karriere als Fußball-Entwicklungshelfer werden.

Spannend liest sich seine Schilderung eines Ausflugs zur Inselgruppe Kinmen, die damals noch militärisches Sperrgebiet war. Der Fußball-Weltverband FIFA kennt Taiwan übrigens natürlich nur als “Chinese Taipei”, in der Weltrangliste steht es auf Platz 161 zwischen Liberia und Puerto Rico. In der Vor-Auswahl zur WM-Qualifikation verlor “Chinese Taipei” am 28.10. ein Heimspiel gegen Usbekistan mit 0:2. Schon toll, was man im Netz alles finden kann. Schade, dass ich nicht dabeisein konnte, vielleicht hätte es geholfen.

Zwar nicht Taiwan, aber interessant: “Asiatinnen auf dem Vormarsch”, u.a. über die Situation der Frauen in China.

Obwohl jedes Jahr eine große Zahl von Studenten die Universitäten verlässt, herrscht Mangel an Absolventen, die über jene Qualifikationen verfügen, die westliche Firmen benötigen. Junge Chinesinnen greifen deshalb mit beiden Händen nach der einmaligen Chance, Karriere zu machen und finanziell auf eigenen Beinen zu stehen.

PPT readers will be interested in Reporters Without Borders on the health rumors case. RWB makes this call: “”We call for the charges against these three Internet users to be dismissed…. Such accusations are baseless and violate the right to report an economic event after it has taken place. Explaining that the stock exchange fall was linked to the king’s health harms neither the king nor national security.”

RWB states “Although it does not mention lèse-majesté (attacks on the monarchy), the Computers Crime Act 2007 punishes crimes that threaten national security and, under Thai law, lèse-majesté is a crime that threatens national security. To avoid being closed down, many Internet sector companies cooperate with the authorities and comply with all requests for information about individual Internet users. The supreme court has never issued a ruling on the Computers Crime Act.”

They add that “Around 55,000 websites are currently blocked in Thailand on suspicion of violating the lèse-majesté laws, while 34 people are currently being prosecuted on lèse-majesté charges.”

The SABC is attempting to abolish TV licenses in favor of a tax on the public to secure funding.  The South African Broadcasting Corporation is a public service broadcaster, its vision being to empower citizens with the knowledge to participate in a democratic society.  Its three television channels and 18 radio stations broadcast news in all eleven official languages.  Currently, people must pay a license in order to receive the public television stations, much like in England. 

This change is of concern to wealthier taxpayers, who will have to pay a higher percentage of their incomes to the public broadcaster, and to families with people earning multiple incomes, who will each have to pay.  TV licenses are currently paid by household.  Of concern to politically active citizens, however, are the changes being made within the corporation.  The government already appoints SABC board members and top level executives, therefore controlling the content and point of view of the news. 

Cartoon by Zapiro/Z News

Channel Africa, an international radio station braodcast in six langauges, will now promote South Africa’s official foreign policy.  This shift has industry experts concerned SABC will become a state broadcaster and the transition will happen before the public has a chance to speak out against it. 

The shift in ideology may not seem harmful at first glance.  There are countless radio stations, television stations, newspapers and magazines produced in South Africa, most of which are independent.  Those who have satellite television and radio and purchase a daily newspaper can easily avoid hearing foreign policy masked as news, but those who cannot afford such luxuries, who rely on the public broadcaster for information, cannot.  Turning one radio station into a state mouthpiece could be a signal of additional influence in the future.  It is a slippery slope.  When the government already influences the content on SABC’s TV and radio stations, imagine how that control will increase if they are officially sanctioned to do so. 

Reporters Without Borders issued its eigth annual World Press Freedom Index today, ranking each country based on violations of press freedom that have occured within the past year.  The organization reviews media law and legislation, censorship, access to public records, threats to journalists, and incidents of journalists being arrested or killed in each nation.  At the top of the list are Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden, all tied for having the most free press systems.  This year, South Africa was ranked 33rd, up from 36th last year.  The United States, which often prides itself on its freedom of the press, was tied with South Africa in 2008 and moved up to 20th in the last year. 

Cartoon by Zapiro/Z News

I’m not sure whether that is a comment on the United States’ press freedom violations under the Bush administration or South Africa’s valiant attempts to adopt a more free press system since the end of the apartheid.  Probably both.  How will Reporters Without Borders reflect this shift in policy in its report next year?  But more importantly, how will South African citizens respond to the (albeit slight) erosion of a press system free from government control?  And why are people around the office (journalists) concerned more about what it will now cost them to watch television?

The French organization Reporters sans frontières [Reporters without borders] (RSF) is now twenty years old, an opportunity to remember the relevance of the fight for freedom of the press across the world—respected by less than half of the 191 member states of the UN—and its universal value. Twenty photographers, men and women, including Maggie Steber (whose book of photographs of Haiti, Dancing on Fire, is one of the most beautiful I own), Sebastião Salgado, Jane Evelyn Atwood, Don McCullin and Patrick Robert, have offered their testimony for the anniversary of this state-approved NGO, which works with a network of partner associations on all continents and with over 110 correspondents across the world. “These are not only testimonies of war: many are testimonies of life [...] which show, beyond continents and regimes, similar men and women, who always end up, for the simple reason that they are human beings, reacting to oppression”, in the view of the President of the French Senate, Christian Poncelet.

RSF intervenes several hundred times a year to denounce the banning of the media and the imprisonment or kidnapping of journalists, paying their medical costs or lawyer’s fees, or helping their families as well as taking in refugees.

Steber’s photograph “Girl in the shanty town of Rabato, Haiti, 1990” (above) is one of the photos included in this photographic testimonial. Steber’s vivid color photographs, as one reviewer of Dancing on Fire wrote, “communicate all too explicitly the tragic violence of Haiti. Unlike television documentaries in which images flash by, allowing us to glance away, these photographs capture critical moments for all time–of young men gunned down in the streets, of voodoo rituals, of anguished children at the funerals of their parents, of a nation destroying itself. Interspersed among the scenes of brutality and deprivation are glimpses of people who dare to smile faintly, including one particularly touching portrait of a peasant woman and her three children.”

 For more information on the Reporters without Borders go to their website: www.rsf.org

• What a GREAT idea! “Recognizegood.com was created by the Samaritan Center and high-tech services and products supplier TyRex Group Ltd. earlier this year to raise money for local charities. The site is free to use, but for each recognition of a good deed, TyRex gives the Samaritan Center $1.”

• Chilling and unacceptable:  “One hundred forty-three years after passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and 60 years after Article 4 of the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights banned slavery and the slave trade worldwide, there are more slaves than at any time in human history — 27 million.”
• URL disasters are continuously chuckleworthy!  How can you not laugh at www.ustinc.com?
• As per usual, Glenn Greenwald (@glenngreenwald) brings lofty philosophical rationalization behind torture crashing to the earth (As per usual, I sometimes like to revisit stuff we may have all already seen, but seem important to remember): ” (1) The fact that we are not really bothered any more by taking helpless detainees in our custody and (a) threatening to blow their brains out, torture them with drills, rape their mothers, and murder their children; (b) choking them until they pass out; (c) pouring water down their throats to drown them; (d) hanging them by their arms until their shoulders are dislocated; (e) blowing smoke in their face until they vomit; (f) putting them in diapers, dousing them with cold water, and leaving them on a concrete floor to induce hypothermia; and (g) beating them with the butt of a rifle — all things that we have always condemend as “torture” and which our laws explicitly criminalize as felonies (“torture means. . . the threat of imminent death; or the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering . . .”) — reveals better than all the words in the world could how degraded, barbaric and depraved a society becomes when it lifts the taboo on torturing captives.”

• Interesting idea : House calls to vulnerable patients, which can reduce hospital admissions, may be key to reform.
• Yet another way in which Americans are so lucky:  “Reporters Without Borders has released a report entitled ‘The dangers for journalists who expose environmental issues.’ The report looks at 13 cases of journalists and bloggers who have been killed, physically attacked, jailed, threatened or censored for reporting on the environment, and highlights the need for a free press to tackle ecological challenges.”
• Yoga via YouTube? Why the hell not?
• 2nd Tour, Hope I Don’t Die. – “The book’s title came from graffiti scrawled on a wall at an Air Force base in Kuwait that was one of the transit points for troops heading to Iraq … A clear idea of the pathetic unwillingness of the American people to share in the sacrifices of these wars can be gleaned from a comment that President Obama made in his address last week to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. ‘We are a country of more than 300 million Americans,’ he said. ‘Less than 1 percent wears the uniform …’ if this war, now approaching its ninth year, is so fundamental, we should all be pitching in. We shouldn’t be leaving the entire monumental burden to a tiny portion of the population, sending them into combat again, and again, and again, and again …”
• Have I quickied this neat thingie before? Well … it could bear another mention I suppose.
• This is still one of the most moving and weighty videos wrapped in such a simple package (and it applies in so many ways … in this case the confidence and education given to a girl … in other cases, teaching self-sufficiency through education for girls and boys everywhere.):

PPT has to give plaudits to Bangkok Pundit today. As many readers will have noticed, BP has moved to Asian Correspondent, and for a while that created some confusion and missing links. PPT is pleased to say that these teething problems seem to have been sorted out.

Among BP’s latest posts are two that are of special interest for PPT.

The first post is one PPT was about to write. Like us, BP is flabbergasted that The Nation has come up with an editorial that is measured, serious and important. Given its recent track record of xenophobia, an ability to simply make things up and a tendency to be the English-language mouthpiece for the craziest of speculative stories at ASTV/Manager, The Nation deserves credit for its editorial “Media under siege in Southeast Asia” (30 October 2009).

PPT had a post that related to this coverage of the Press Freedom Index a week ago, but we have to say that The Nation does a good job. Some examples of sharp observations in the editorial: “The annual Press Freedom Index for 2009, released earlier this month by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), makes for disturbing reading for the Asean region. People in Southeast Asia must ask if we’re sacrificing long-term democracy and freedom for short-term security and stability.” On Thailand, this, which we reproduce at length:

“Thailand, at number 130, has regretfully joined the ranks of Singapore (133) and Malaysia (131), which are traditionally known for their control of the press.

The Kingdom was ranked at number 66 only seven years ago. It has fallen so spectacularly because of the curbing of press freedom by ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his supporters, then by the military junta which ousted Thaksin, and now by the Democrat-led government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, which cracked down mightily on the so-called “red” media in the aftermath of the April riots this year.

Then there is the lese majeste law, used with increased frequency as His Majesty advances in age. As RSF notes: ‘The Thai media has been buffeted by repeated political crises. Several journalists have been assaulted by demonstrators, and scores of media have been censored for openly supporting the red shirts.’

But it has been the crackdown on Internet users and intellectuals – for alleged crimes of lese-majeste – that poses the greatest threat to free expression in the country: ‘Most Thai journalists voice the same reverence for King Bhumibol as the vast majority of the population. The others are forced into self-censorship.’

Indeed, the Index might do well to rethink the direction Thailand and most of Asean is heading, especially when we can’t fall much lower than this.”

Well said. Let’s hope this is a sign of a more tolerant and principled stand at The Nation.

The second post is on succession. PPT has several posts on this topic, so we won’t go over them again, but BP draws our attention to a letter that we missed, sent to the Asia Times Online about a week ago. In it, Vimon Kidchob, the Director-General of the Department of Information at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who PPT also cited yesterday on a different story, has a letter dated 23 October 2009. Here is what he says, responding to an article on succession by Shawn Crispin:

Shawn W Crispin’s article (Thailand mulls royal succession, October 19) raises a few issues that need to be clarified. First, it tries to make the issue of royal succession in Thailand a mysterious one, full of questions and uncertainty. There is, in fact, nothing to speculate about. Those knowledgeable about Thailand would know that there are clearly stipulated rules, both in the Palace Law on Succession and the Thai constitution regarding the issue. Indeed, the relevant provisions in the current constitution – similar to previous ones, including the 1997 constitution – lay out the specific roles of the Privy Council, National Assembly and cabinet.

Second, the Thai lese-majeste law is not accurately understood. As part of the country’s criminal code, the law is there to protect the monarchy which is one of the Thailand’s principal institutions and integral to the country’s national security. It is necessary also because Thai law and convention do not provide for the monarchy to take legal action against the people nor allow them to act in their own defense. While the Criminal Procedure Code allows anyone who finds a suspected lese-majeste act to lodge a complaint, such a complaint must be handled in accordance with due legal process. To ensure its proper enforcement, the government is also in the process of providing clearer guidelines on its application. As it is though, the law is not aimed at curbing freedom of speech and expression nor the legitimate exercise of academic freedom including the debates about the monarchy as an institution. Amidst the on-going intense political differences, apparent attempts to politicize the monarchy for political ends seem to have unduly gained momentum. Those who follow developments in the country are therefore asked to be more careful in differentiating facts from rumors.

The comments on succession are worth reading. Those on lese majeste are another example of Vikom’s fairy tales (presumably demanded of him by the Abhisit government), reproducing statements that have long been shown to be false. Especially significant is the lie that “the law is not aimed at curbing freedom of speech and expression nor the legitimate exercise of academic freedom including the debates about the monarchy as an institution.” There are several pending and convicted cases that PPT tries to track that unambiguously demonstrate that the lese majeste law and the computer crimes act are specifically used to limit freedom of speech and expression. Every Thai knows this and any foreigner who maintains more than a passing interest in Thailand knows it too.

المادة 48 من الدستور

المادة 48 من الدستور

الحريات والحقوق والواجبات العامة

الحريات والحقوق والواجبات العامة

RTK is supposed to be the independent public service broadcaster in Kosovo. It has been on air since 1999 and has benefited massively from European financial aid since then.  Unfortunately, the concept of an independent broadcasting is gradually losing ground, as Kosovo’s government seems to be misusing the broadcaster for own mass information purposes.

In an open letter to Hashim Tachi, Prime Minister of Kosovo, the European Broadcasting Union denounced the negative development in the young state:

“Pressure from your government transformed RTK from being a balanced supplier of news into a media arm of the ruling party and of yourself as prime minister. Critical or alternative voices have been suppressed” added Jean Reveillon, Secretary General of the EBU.

The EBU reproach refers primarily  to the newly issued Reporters Without Borders report on press freedom, which  downgrades Kosovo  from 58th to 75th place in less than an year. RTK’s contribution for the fall is obvious:  the broadcaster was to obtain a critical  role in the process of developing a stable and independent democracy in the new country- a process that is recently endangered by strong political and economical interests, governing RTK.

EBU requires urgent measures to restore the autonomy of the broadcaster. After all, autonomy and autonomy only,  is what distinguishes a public broadcsters from a state one.

For further information: balkaninsight

Related Articles: Eroding Press Freedom in Europe

]]> http://europeanmediablog.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/eroding-press-freedom-in-europe/ Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:00:02 +0000 euromediablog http://europeanmediablog.wordpress.com/2009/10/25/eroding-press-freedom-in-europe/

The long awaited press freedom report of Reporters Without Borders was released this week. And the results are anything but flattering to the European countries. While north european states like Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Estonia and Norway still remain on top of the chart, southern and eastern countries like Bulgaria, Italy, Spain and Slovakia were radically downgraded.

While Berlusconi’s war with critical media  relegated Italy to 49th position, France lost eight points primarily because of judicial investigations, arrests of journalists, raids on media and meddling by prominent politicians, including President Nicolas Sarkozy.

37 places down: The biggest fall  was registered in Slovakia and is ascribed to  the adoption of a law imposing an automatic right of (governmental) response in the press.

The ranking is based on questionnaires with 40 criteria, including violence against journalists, imprisonment, physical attacks, censorship, confiscation of newspaper print runs, searches and harassment. The index also takes into account the degree of impunity enjoyed by those responsible for press freedom violations.

With Europe gradually loosing its status as a role model for press freedom, may be it is time to consider adopting EFFECTIVE measures for safeguarding press freedom on European scale. A newly drafted European Charter on Freedom of the Press has already been  signed in 28 states. Let’s hope that it harvests more practical results than similar diplomatic agreements usually do.

Related Articles:

European Charter on Freedom of the Press

For further information: EUobserver

According to World’s Bank data summary Doing Business 2010, Greece dropped nine places to 109 out of 183 economies.

Source: http://www.doingbusiness.org/Documents/CountryProfiles/GRC.pdf

Greece dropped two places to 35 out of 175 in the annual world Press Freedom Index 2009, published this week. According to Reporters without Borders:

The repercussions of demonstrations that shook Greece these last few months were not only political and financial. The press, which is seen by some as a symbol of the established order and the political establishment, became an open and chosen target of a section of the militants. Home-made explosives made out of gas canisters have been used against several media and several journalists received regular death threats. So far no-one has been hurt in the attacks, often claimed by anarchists or extreme leftists. But they have had the effect of fostering self-censorship in some editorial offices and forced some foreign correspondents to take greater security precautions.

The Global Gender Gap Index 2008 Rankings

Greece dropped three places to 75 out of 128 countries according to Global Gender Gap Index 2008 Rankings

The Global Gender Gap Index examines the gap between men and women in four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival.

Global Competitiveness Index 2009–2010

Greece dropped four places to 71 out of 133 countries according to Global Competitiveness Index 2009–2010 rankings

The European Parliament narrowly voted to throw out a resolution expressing concern over media rights in Italy.

Italy dropped five places to 49th in its annual world Press Freedom Index, published this week, with only Bulgaria and Romania worst placed among EU countries.

The state of press freedom in Italy, caught between draconian draft reforms and threats from the mafia, is more and more worrying to its European neighbours. The grip of mafia gangs on the media sector is strengthening and forcing a large number of journalists to tread warily. Silvio Berlusconi’s return to power brings back into focus the question of broadcast media concentration and government control. Legislative reform that would ban publication of some legal steps is incompatible with EU democratic standards.

Silvio Berlusconi, the country’s prime minister, is also owner of Mediaset, one of Europe’s largest media companies, thus according to Reporters Without Borders, Italy’s press freedom is a cause for concern.

In Economic Freedom dropped twelve places, according to Fraser Institute and in Global Pease eight.

Out of the six annual rankings we consider, including corruption perceptions and economic freedom, in only one, the gender gap, has Italy improved by 17 places out of  128  in the rankings in 2008. The data show very significant improvements in the percentage of women among legislators, senior officials and managers, members of parliament and in ministerial level positions.

The Global Gender Gap Index examines the gap between men and women in four fundamental categories: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival.

Source: The Economist

This week there have been two releases of indices that tend to be followed in the international media, markets and other interested observers. Earlier this week, Reporters Without Borders released their 2009 Press Freedom Index. Transparency International has released its Global Corruption Report for 2008. It seems that Thailand is struggling on both counts.

Press Freedom Index: For Asia, RWB’s headline stories were about Fiji and Thailand. Here’s what was said about Thailand: “Political power grabs dealt press freedom a great disservice again this year. … In Thailand, the endless clashes between ‘yellow shirts’ and ‘red shirts’ had a very negative impact on the press’s ability to work. As a result, the kingdom is now 130th.”

That’s 130th in an index of 175 countries, declining from 124th the previous year and with its Index ballooning from 34.5 in 2008 to 44.0 in 2009 (lower numbers indicate greater press freedom).

In 2002, Thailand was 65th and in 2005 was 107th. Part of this decline reflects increasing numbers of countries brought into the Index, although the country rating went from 22.75 in 2002 to 28.0 in 2005 . As might be imagined, following the 2006 coup, Thailand’s ranking and index declined again, to 122 and 33.5 respectively. There was a precipitous decline in the 2007 index to 53.5.

So Thailand is doing better 2009 than it was in 2007, but things have deteriorated since 2002.

Some of the blogs have questioned this decline – there has been little mention of the RWB in the press in Thailand (is the latter indicative of what’s going on?). These blogs point to the fear that existed in the media under Thaksin. That is certainly true, but at the same time, that fear soon morphed into outright anger and attacks from the media that raised issues of fairness in the media itself. At the same time, there have been remarkable efforts to close, censor and control the “non-traditional” media such as the internet and community radio. It will be interesting to see how the clear anti-red shirt biases in the media will play out in the 2009 index.

Corruption Perception Index: TI’s index is often criticized because it is about perceptions rather than actual corruption. In addition, because it “ranks countries in terms of the degree to which businesspeople and country analysts perceive corruption to exist among public officials and politicians”, it leaves out all ideas regarding perception in business itself. It also has some strengths. As TI states: “The strength of the CPI lies in its combination of multiple data sources in a single index, so that erratic findings from one source can be balanced by at least two other sources. This reduces the probability of misrepresenting a country’s perceived level of corruption. Involving local businesspeople and country analysts alongside non-resident experts is also an advantage. It makes it possible to recognise the specificities of local customs through the views of local experts, while at the same time enhancing the consistency of judgment across countries by involving non-residents.”

How is Thailand doing? In 2008, Thailand ranked 84 (of 180), just above Albania and just below Saudi Arabia. Its Index was 3.5 (where 10 equals no perceived corruption). The previous year, Thailand was 93rd with an Index of 3.3. This means that Thailand’s ranking has gone up in 2008, but so has the Index. In other words, perception of corruption has increased. Back in 2000, Thailand had an Index of 3.2 and ranked 62nd (of 91 countries). In 2005, Thailand’s Index was down to 3.8 with a ranking of 60th of 159 countries.

The bottom line is that Thailand seems to have improved since its low in 2005, but is still down on 2000.

by Dexter Lee

7:00PM

>From Honduras Coup 2009 on Micheletti’s latest proposal, “What Micheletti Wants: Recognition before Restitution”

>Honduras: Coup’s Impact on Honduran Women

 >Pumping up the volume, literally, at the Brazilian embassy – Tortilla Con Sal has the 411 (in Spanish)

HONDURAS : Los militares que rodean la embajada de Brasil en Honduras incrementaron sus medidas de acoso psicológico

 >Honduran Election Body Touts Vote to Solve Crisis

WASHINGTON, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Honduran authorities organizing a presidential election in the midst of a political crisis insisted on Thursday they can hold a free and fair vote even if the elected incumbent is a refugee in a foreign embassy.

The three-member Supreme Electoral Tribunal, visiting Washington to tout the neutrality of the Nov. 29 vote, said the ballot box is the best way to resolve the crisis caused by President Manuel Zelaya’s ouster in a June coup.

But the United States, the European Union and Latin American governments have condemned the coup and are demanding that Zelaya be returned to power to finish his term.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration has yet to decide whether it will recognize the election as legitimate if Zelaya is not restored before the vote.

Jose Saul Escobar, the electoral body’s president, said he hoped there would be a political settlement between Zelaya and the de facto government that replaced him, but that Honduras needs to elect the next president due to take office in January to preserve democratic rule.

“The majority of Hondurans want the elections to go ahead to resolve the crisis,” he said in Washington.

More than 118,000 poll workers have been trained to staff voting stations with U.S. funding, said David Andres Matamoros, one of the three Honduras electoral officials, who met with State Department officials on Wednesday.

“The government of the United States is following a two-track policy: they support the negotiation of a political deal, but are also backing the election process,” he said.

Zelaya was exiled by soldiers on June 28 after the Supreme Court ordered his arrest. His critics accuse him of violating the constitution by seeking support for re-election, a charge he denies.

Zelaya returned secretly a month ago and is holed up in the Brazilian embassy to avoid arrest. Negotiations have stalled over the de facto government’s refusal to allow him to resume the presidency.

Washington suspended the visas of more senior figures in the de facto government on Wednesday to press for a settlement.

Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank, said a political deal allowing Zelaya to return to office or back to political life in Honduras was the best option.

“But that does not mean this crisis has to go on for ever if there is no agreement,” Hakim said. “Obviously, an election is a way to solve a crisis, though it’s way second best.” (Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Kieran Murray)”

10:30AM

>Communique Number 30 of National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d’Etat

Communique Number 30 of National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d’Etat

The National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d’ETat in Honduras communicates to the Honduran population and the international community:

1. We denounce the manipulative acts and delay tactics with which the de facto regime tries to buy time and get to the electoral farse of November 29th without having re-established the institutional order and without having returned to his post the legitimate President Manuel Zelaya Rosales.

2. We reiterate that the Honduran people will not recognize the campaign and the results of the electoral process of the 29th of November while the dictatorial regime that the oligarchy sustains through armed force continues.

3. We condemn the disinformation campaign carried out by the media in service of the oligarchy through which they attempt to present the National Front of Resistance Against the Coup d’Etat as a violent organization. We reiterate that the methods of peaceful struggle are the only ones that we have used throughout 115 days of resistance.

4. We denounce the economic crisis through which the de facto regime is taking us and which is provoking an increase in the levels of poverty of the population.

5. We express our indignation at the continuation of the repression by the police and military bodies of the State, which is expressed in assassinations of militants of the Resistance, actions of intimidation and surrounding the marches and rallies, the illiegal and immoral juridical processes which persecute and jail our sisters and brothers and, more recently, the actions of harassment and intimidation against teachers throughout the country.


6. We reiterate our unbreakable will to install a democratic and popular National Constitutional Assembly with which we will refound the country and rescue it from a minority economic class that exploits the working class.

“AT 115 DAYS OF STRUGGLE, HERE NOBODY IS GIVING UP”
Tegucigalpa, Honduras October 20th, 2009

>”On Wednesday, Honduran police announced further restrictions on protests, saying they must be authorized by the government 24 hours in advance with a request detailing the people in charge and the time and route the march will take, in an effort to quell near daily rallies in favor of Zelaya.”   Full article follows.  (See Honduras Coup 2009 for more background on these restrictions.)  

>>Honduras regime uses noise attack as U.S. cuts visas | Reuters

By Mica Rosenberg

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) – Honduras’ de facto leaders blasted loud music outside the embassy where Manuel Zelaya is sheltering on Wednesday and refused to buckle under increased pressure from Washington for the ousted president’s return.

Talks to resolve the political crisis in Honduras sparked by a June 28 coup are deadlocked over whether leftist Zelaya can be reinstated to power.

“One side of the dialogue has all the privileges and advantages and the other legitimately elected side is totally repressed,” Zelaya told local radio station from inside the Brazilian Embassy where he took refuge last month after returning from exile.

Police said they found two unexploded grenades in a shopping center near the hotel in Tegucigalpa where the crisis talks are being held. The grenades were safely removed and no one was injured.

Overnight, the caretaker government sent the army to play loud rock music, military band tunes, church bells and recordings of pig grunts over loudspeakers outside the embassy, a Reuters photographer inside the embassy said.

Zelaya called it “torture.”

The crisis in Honduras has become a headache for President Barack Obama, who had pledged better relations with Latin America.

Regional governments worry Obama is not doing enough to pressure Honduras’ de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, appointed by Congress after the coup.

The Supreme Court ordered Zelaya’s ouster, saying he violated the constitution by seeking support for re-election. Zelaya denies the charge.

VISAS PULLED

The U.S. State Department suspended the visas of more senior figures that backed the coup on Wednesday. It marked the second time Washington pulled diplomatic and tourist visas over the crisis.

“We just urge the two sides to stick to it. We urge the de facto regime in particular to help open a pathway for international support of the election by concluding the agreement,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said.

But both sides were far from a deal on Wednesday.

The United States has warned it might not recognize the results of the November 29 elections if Zelaya is not allowed to return to power first, but Micheletti continued to resist.

“We obviously believe that (Zelaya’s return) is not possible. We believe he violated the law,” Arturo Corrales, a lead negotiator for Micheletti, said. The team said they had heard nothing from Zelaya’s camp in 48 hours.

Zelaya angered Honduras’ business leaders by moving the country closer to Venezuela’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez. Micheletti’s government accused Chavez and Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega of fomenting violence in Honduras with inflammatory rhetoric.

On Wednesday, Honduran police announced further restrictions on protests, saying they must be authorized by the government 24 hours in advance with a request detailing the people in charge and the time and route the march will take, in an effort to quell near daily rallies in favor of Zelaya.

(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Anthony Boadle in Washington and Adriana Barrera, Ines Guzman and Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa; Writing by Mica Rosenberg)

“

>CONDEMNATION OF THE ACTS OF INTIMIDATION AGAINST THE EMBASSY OF BRAZIL IN HONDURAS October 22, 2009

Posted by hondurasemb in Coup d’etat.
CP/DEC. 43 (1723/09)

CONDEMNATION OF THE ACTS OF INTIMIDATION AGAINST
THE EMBASSY OF BRAZIL IN HONDURAS

(Approved by the Permanent Council at its meeting of October 21, 2009)

The Permanent Council denounces and strongly condemns the hostile action by the de facto regime against the embassy of Brazil in Tegucigalpa and the harassment of its occupants through deliberate actions that affect them physically and psychologically and violate their human rights.

The Permanent Council calls on the de facto regime to put an immediate end to these actions, to respect the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and international instruments on human rights, and to withdraw forthwith all repressive forces from the areas surrounding the Embassy of Brazil, without neglecting the due security of the Mission.

The Permanent Council appeals for guarantees for the right to life, integrity, and security of President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales and of all persons in and around the Embassy of Brazil, as well as for the protection of their dignity, and it urges the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to follow up on this situation.

The Permanent Council issues a strong appeal for continuation of the dialogue already well under way in Honduras, under the terms of the proposal of the San José Agreement, without any attempt to open topics other than those contained in said proposal.

>The Plot Thickens: Honduran Coup Regime and Landowning Elites Enlist the Support of Foreign Paramilitaries 

Written by Reed M. Kurtz

Wednesday, 21 October 2009

 Source: NACLA Report on the Americas

Even more evidence has come to light regarding the desperation and disregard for human rights of the Honduran coup regime and its elite backers. On Friday, October 9 a United Nations human rights panel issued a warning concerning the presence of contracted foreign paramilitary forces operating inside the troubled country. According to the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries, an estimated 40 members of the infamous United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) have been hired by wealthy Honduran landowners to defend themselves “from further violence between supporters of the de facto government and those of the deposed President Manuel Zelaya.”

As Zelaya’s Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas notes, it is widely believed that these mercenaries are being used to “do the dirty jobs that the armed forces refuse to do.” In addition, the panel established direct links between President Roberto Micheletti’s coup-installed government and foreign paramilitaries, stating that an additional group of 120 hired soldiers from several countries throughout the region had been created to provide support for the coup regime. This report confirms allegations made by the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo back in September.

Noting that Honduras is a signatory to the international convention against the use of mercenaries, the panel, comprised of a diverse array of security and human rights experts, expressed its deep concern and called upon the Honduran golpistas to take action against the use of paramilitaries inside Honduran territory. In response, Micheletti rejected the allegations, denying any recruitment of paramilitaries for protection.

This report represents yet another condemnation from the international community of the de facto Honduran government and offers further evidence of the degree to which Micheletti’s regime and its supporters have undermined democracy and human rights in the region. The AUC, essentially an umbrella organization of various right-wing death squads, many of which also collaborate with Colombian drug traffickers, is one of the region’s most notorious paramilitary organizations and is classified as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department. Supposedly “demobilized” in 2006, the AUC has largely continued to carry out its drug-dealing activities and campaign of violence and intimidation against campesinos, indigenous peoples, stigmatized social groups such as homosexuals and prostitutes, labor organizers, critical journalists, and human rights advocates.

The AUC has also been directly and indirectly linked to numerous powerful elites and business interests in Colombia, including many close to President Álvaro Uribe’s administration, and is said to operate “parallel” to the Colombian military. (See “Country Summary: Colombia.” Human Rights Watch. January 2008.) The AUC usually presents itself as an alternative to the leftist guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). It targets many left-leaning groups, which it generally refers to as “FARC sympathizers,” a characterization often repeated by Uribe himself and by members of his government, in order to discredit those groups and justify the brutal activities of the AUC. Above all, however, most of those targeted by the AUC are chosen precisely because their efforts on behalf of social justice and their resistance to neoliberal policies are in direct opposition to the interests of the AUC’s elite backers.

Accordingly, the linkages connecting the Honduran military regime, powerful members of the country’s landed elite, and right-wing Colombian paramilitaries are extremely troubling but not altogether surprising. Back on July 4, before any evidence of direct collaboration with Colombian narco-terrorists had emerged, journalist Al Giordano noted that the Honduran regime was in the process of making itself into a “rogue narco-state,” shutting itself off from the international community while allying with the most shadowy and reactionary sectors of the Latin American right. Among its prominent supporters have been Rafael Hernández Nodarse, a millionaire arms trafficker with ties to Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, and Otto Reich, a Washington super-hawk who played a prominent role in Iran-Contra affair. All these parties share an agenda of preserving unjust wealth and resource distributions while waging total war against social democracy using any means necessary. Honduras merely represents the most recent arena in which this war is being waged.

The right’s problem with Zelaya has never been that he tried to reform his country’s deeply flawed constitution (“the worst in the world,” according to Costa Rican President Óscar Arias), but because, according to Micheletti himself, he “became friends with Daniel Ortega, Chávez, Correa, Evo Morales. … He went to the left.” In other words, Micheletti is using the same tactics of “guilt by association” that his AUC allies use to justify their violence, only this time the “guilt” consists of association with other popular, democratically elected heads of state in the region. Nevertheless, the message and the effect are still the same: If you oppose us, and what we stand for, we will take you down with force.

But whereas the reactionary elites in the region are disposed to using violence, intimidation, and the contracting of paramilitaries to impose their will, those on the Latin American left, the people for whom Morales, Chávez, and Zelaya are merely elected representatives, have increasingly turned to strategies of nonviolence, popular organization, and civil resistance in their struggles for justice and democracy. The degree to which the popular left—and its leaders—continue to adhere to the values of peace, justice, and solidarity will ultimately decide whether or not the popular movement achieves its goals, not only here and now in Honduras, but in all of Latin America.

Reed M. Kurtz is a NACLA Research Associate.

Oh the irony of it all:

>Honduras to protest against Venezuela due to planes allegedly carrying illicit drugs - Daily News – EL UNIVERSAL

As reported by Chief of Staff Rafael Pineda, President Ricardo Micheletti ordered his Foreign Minister Carlos López to “make a protest before the governments and disclose to the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS) these actions which mean an attack and disrespect for our country”

Western Hemisphere

The interim government of Honduras reported on Wednesday that it will make a protest before Venezuela for the frequent landing of Venezuela-flagged aircraft carrying illicit drugs and complained about the lack of US cooperation with Honduras authorities in drug interdiction.

As reported by Chief of Staff Rafael Pineda, President Ricardo Micheletti ordered his Foreign Minister Carlos López to “make a protest before the governments and disclose to the United Nations and the Organization of American States (OAS) these actions which mean an attack and disrespect for our country.”

Pineda talked to reporters after a small cargo plane Antonov 14 holding a Venezuelan license plate YV-1769 landed on Tuesday on an impromptu airstrip in a sector of the eastern department of Olancho, presumably carrying cocaine, Efe reported.

Last week also two Venezuelan planes landed on the departments of Colón (Caribbean) and Yoro (north), both of them allegedly carrying illicit drugs, according to the authorities. However, no cargo was seized.

 >Reporters Sans Frontières

Radio Globo and Canal 36 television, two stations that have been the main media opponents of the 28 June coup d’état, were allowed to resume broadcasting on 19 October, three and a half weeks after the de facto government used a decree suspending civil liberties to close them down and confiscate their equipment.

Sources at Radio Globo, which had managed to keep operating as a clandestine web radio, nonetheless said the station has had to censor itself since it resumed broadcasting. At the same time, Radio Cadena Voces (RCV), a station owned by a coup supporter, has dropped three programmes hosted by women’s groups that allowed government opponents to speak on the air.

“Neither the official lifting of the 28 September state of siege nor the resumption of broadcasting by Radio Globo and Canal 36 means that the rule of law has been restored in Honduras,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Decree 124-2009, a measure published in the official gazette on 7 October, allows the authorities to suspend any programme or media ‘fomenting social anarchy’ and, without saying so openly, is targeted at those that oppose the coup.”

The press freedom organisation added: “This provision constitutes a real threat to pluralism, an incentive to self-censorship and an additional mechanism for polarising the media and public opinion. The situation is all the more disturbing now that the dialogue attempt between deposed President Manuel Zelaya’s emissaries and the de facto government has collapsed.”

The day that Radio Globo and Canal 36 resumed broadcasting, a Honduran freelance journalist told Reporters Without Borders that IVOSA, the company that operates RCV, had decided on 16 October to drop three RCV programmes that were presented by feminist organisations.

They were “Tiempo de hablar,” presented by the Women’s Rights Centre (CDM), “La Burallanga,” presented by the Women’s Study Centre-Honduras (CEM-H) and “Entre Chonas,” presented by the “Visitación Padilla” Women’s Committee.

Reporters Without Borders has obtained copies of INVOSA documents that endorse the withdrawal of the first two of these programmes on the basis of Decree 124-2009 provisions combating “attacks on constitutional order.” INVOSA is owned by former President Ricardo Maduro Joest, whose conservative National Party backed Zelaya’s ouster in June.

By Charlotte Cuthbertson for The Epoch Times

NEW YORK—Israel’s press freedom is in free fall and journalists are being murdered in Russia and Mexico, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). RSF released its World Press Freedom Index Tuesday and there was a general downward trend in the 175 countries surveyed.

European countries took the top 13 spots, yet there is a troubling decline overall, according to Clothilde Le Coz, Reporters Without Borders’ Washington director.

“Not only because of the physical assaults journalist are victim of, but because these countries are adapting and passing laws that are dangerous for freedom of the press and freedom of expression,” she said at the Overseas Press Club in New York. Five media organizations covered the event.

“The Internet is really a big issue in those [European] countries—the laws they are adopting in terms of Internet freedom are restrictive for freedom of speech in general.”

Read the full article about press freedom at The Epoch Times here

One of the most surreal images of the 2003 invasion of Iraq was Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahaf, then its Minister of Information, barking into ‘live’ TV that the American infidels would never find their way into Bagdad as, behind him on screen, American tanks were seen rolling down the streets of the capital. The sight of Al-Sahaf (aka Comical Ali), now a TV pundit, professing that all was well as everything crumbled around his ankles epitomized the farcical and thoroughly disingenuous nature of the Iraq invasion, propelling him to iconic status. [www.welovetheiraqiinformationminister.com] 

Al-Sahaf is, of course, not the only figure in history to have turned his face from the inconveniences of reality. Nero and his fiddle are strong favourites for the prestigious Comical Ali Award, so too Dr Pangloss from Volitare’s Candide.

Singapore’s very own candidate is none other than PAP MP Zaqy Mohamad. When asked to comment on news that the Press Freedom Index, compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RWB), saw Singapore move up from 144^th to 133^rd position, he noted that the “improved ranking “underlines that our press remains credible especially in the face of challenges like the new media””.

According to Zaqy, who is also chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Information, Communications and the Arts, the improved rankings is down to the media diversity here which creates competition which, in turn, provides better-quality work.

[todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC091021-0000103/Press-freedom-index--Spore-133rd#]

Mr Zaqy has blown the competition away. Bullshit may come in all shapes and sizes but we all know pedigree manure when we smell it. Only in a parallel universe is a 133 ranking in the Press Freedom Index indicative of “press credibility”. Only in Singapore do a government-controlled TV station and a government-controlled newspaper constitute “media diversity” and “competition”.

It’s hard to decide which is more frightening – that Zaqy actually believes what he’s saying, or that this is just another ideological reflex action from a PAP MP. If we credit the man with even an ounce of intelligence, and as polite respectful bloggers we sadly must, then it boils down to cynicism.

There are a hundred and one ways to deal with these types of embarrassing data. First, question the selection criteria of the index. Zaqy could have noted that the criteria chosen by RWB may be arbritary and thus favour some types of press and not others. Second, he could have said that the majority of Singaporeans do not seem to want more than what is already offered by The Straits Times. Third, he could have reiterated the PAP’s “nation-building press” spiel. All of this would not have raised a brow. Instead, he chose to go for broke.

When a man can say, with a straight face, that our press is credible after coming in 133 out of 175 countries then he must believe that the rest of us are morons. When a man can announce that we have media diversity and press freedom despite our country’s long trail of political censorship, he must believe that we are an uneducated bunch. They say we get the government we deserve, and given the political apathy of Singaporeans, we deserve Zaqy. After all, we elected him…. or did we?