Iran's Opposition Unrest Flares Up again with a Vengance

If the Tehran mullahs thought the worst popular unrest since the Islamic Revolution was over, they should just look out their windows.

Iranians' anger is burning hot once again. (EPA photo)

Because opposition forces have taken on the streets of the capital with renewed intensity ignoring the regime's warnings of using violence to put down the protests.

The new wave of demonstrations was called to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the 1999 student unrest.

The New York Times:

As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, and there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported.

A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kagar Street, paused for a minute and said, “I am not scared because we are in this together.”

The protesters lighted trash on fire in the street, and shopkeepers locked their gates, then let demonstrators in to escape the wrath of the police. Hotels also served as safe havens, letting in protesters and locking out the authorities. It has been almost four weeks since the polls closed and the government announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election in a landslide.

And it has been almost four weeks of defiance, in the face of the government’s repeated, uncompromising and violent efforts to restore the status quo. The government did succeed in keeping people off the streets the last 11 days, leaving many to simmer on their own as political insiders and clerical heavyweights slugged it out behind the scenes.

The protests ignored the agreement by opposition candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi and his political allies to renounce open defiance of the election results and channel their complains through legal means.

The people had other plans, apparently.

Prison Sentence and Fine Imposed on Opposition Cambodian Editor

Cambodian opposition newspaper editor Hang Chakra was sentenced in absentia to one year in prison and fined US$2,800 for publishing "disinformation" about alleged corruption by officials working closely with Senior Primer Minister Sok An.

The Licahdo website, the publication of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, reports that Chakra was eventually arrested and taken to the Prey Sar Prison to serve his sentence.

Prosecutors reacted to articles published in Chakra's Khmer Machach Srok newspaper about the firing of officials who worked with Sok An, who is also the head of the Council of Ministers, and argued that the stories could affect the country's political stability.

The Licadho:

Hang Chakra had originally been summoned to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court on June 3 to answer questions regarding controversial articles published in his newspaper. During Chakra's interview, details of informants inside the Council of Ministers who were the source for the stories remained anonymous with Hang Chakra refusing to identify them to the court, as allowed under Article 2 of the Press Law.

(...)

This was not the first time that Hang Chakra and his newspaper, one of the few media outlets not controlled by the ruling party, have come under fire from the government in recent years:

•   In July 2008, an opposition defector and government advisor Sok Pheng threatened to sue Hang Chakra after the paper published an article alleging that Sok Pheng was involved in corrupt activities.
•   In January 2008 Hang Chakra was questioned by the Phnom Penh Municipal Court after Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh filed a defamation lawsuit against him in relation to an article that alleged Cham Prasidh had had an extramarital affair.

Even though the country's current press law decriminalizes defamation offenses, public officials and prosecutors insist on applying other, more punishing statues, such as the one used to imprison Chakra.

China Threatens to Use Death Penalty against Uighur Riot Leaders

More than 150 people have died in ethnic riots in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, and the Chinese authorities, afraid the crisis could turn into a full-fledged uprising, have threatened to punish those responsible with the death sentence.

Uighur protesters today behind barricades during
China's worst riots in 40 years. (EPA photo)

What started in this western ethnic Uighur enclave with a few women challenging riot police to have their husbands and sons released from prison has mushroomed into a national crisis that forced President Hu Jintao to cut his G-8 meeting attendance short to face the music back in Beijing.

The New York Times:

The official, Li Zhi, the party boss in Urumqi, which is Xinjiang’s capital and the center of the violence, said that many people suspected of being instigators had been arrested and that some were students.

“To those who have committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them,” Mr. Li said at a morning news conference. “The small groups of the violent people have already been caught by the police. The situation is now under control.”

He was echoed by China’s public security minister, Meng Jianzhu, who was quoted by the state news agency Xinhua as telling Urumqi residents that those who led the violence should be punished “with the utmost severity.”

Underscoring the government’s concern over China’s worst ethnic violence in decades, China’s president, Hu Jintao, cut short a visit to Italy, where he had planned to attend gatherings organized alongside the Group of 8 summit meeting that began on Wednesday. He returned to Beijing to deal with the aftermath of the riots.

The Uighur riots inevitably bring back memories of the Tibet uprising that cast a dark shadow over the regime's Olympic festivities last year. Somehow, internal discontent seems to work in cycles in China.

Time to rethink the system.

Article 19 Rejects Abusive Defamation Sentence against Brazilian Editor

Article 19 reports that a journalist in the Amazonian state of Para has been hit with a defamation sentence that can very well put him and his publication out of business.

Back in 2005, Jornal Pessoal's editor Luiz Flavio Pinto published a story about the alleged smuggling activities of late local businessman Romulo Maionara, whose media group, Grupo Liberal, has dominated the local media for many years.

The state's Superior Court sentenced Pinto to pay a US$15,000, which could ery well put him out of business, to publish a note written by the sons of Maionara and, more onerously, "forbade Jornal Pessoal from again publishing any statement that could be considered aggressive, defamatory, calumnious or slanderous in relation to Romulo Maionara and his two sons, or face a further US$15,000 penalty."

Article 19 reports that Pinto, "who has 42 years of experience in reporting on environmental devastation and corruption in the Amazon, has in the past been the victim of death threats, physical attacks and dozens of civil and criminal defamation lawsuits. He currently faces 14 other lawsuits filed by the Maionara brothers."

Living in the Amazon does not give anyone the prerogative to live by the law of the jungle. Pinto is obviously the victim of a judicial system designed to foster the survival of the fittest.

We take exemption to this judicial harassment and urge the Para authorities to declare this decision null and void for the sake of a transparent and accountable society.

China Blocks Internet Services after Riots in the Uighur Province

A different province to repress, same censoring methods.

That seems to be the recurring theme when it comes to China and the regime's handling of its internal problems: repress hard, censor harder.

IDG News Service reports that Beijing has blocked Twitter throughout China and Internet access in the ethnic province of Uighur, where riots have left at least 140 dead and 800 injured in that Western region of China.

Protesters, mostly women, confront riot police in
the Uighur Province town of Urumqi (EPA photo)

The government actions added to long-standing efforts to control online discussion of sensitive topics, especially at times of crisis.

"They cut off the Internet to shut down communications," said Wu'er Kaixi, an ethnic Uighur who fled China after helping lead pro-democracy protests there twenty years ago. The Uighurs are a minority concentrated in Xinjiang province that China has struggled to assimilate.

Beijing did not want Internet users to upload pictures and videos like they did after deadly riots last year in Tibet, Wu'er said.

China locked down communications much faster this time, he said.

The riots were apparently triggered by dozens of women demanding the release of their sons and husbands. Soon they were joined by thousands of demonstrators. The ensuing clashes with armed police left as many as 140 protesters dead.

The Beijing central government was afraid the province would observe the anniversary last month of the 1989 protests that also ended up in bloody repression by police.

IFJ Calls Attention on Iran's Desperate Means to Curb Press Freedom

The International Federation of Journalists urged the international community to reject Iran's "massive attack on independent media" that has translated into the imprisonment of countless journalists and the cracking down on independent media, both domestic and international.

"The rulers of Iran appear determined to stifle dissent and to isolate its people from the outside world," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "It's a desperate but futile attempt to turn the clock back." 

According to reports, the head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, has said in a memo to judges that measures are needed to contain the growing criticism of the government in the independent media. He reportedly singled out websites and satellites channels and called for prosecution of any person who cooperates with them.

The IFJ has repeatedly criticised Iranian authorities for their heavy handed way in suppressing independent reporting of the unprecedented show of opposition to the regime following the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month. The government expelled foreign correspondents and attempted to jam broadcasts of international channels and to block websites.

Scores of Iranian journalists have also been arrested, while others went into hiding to evade arrest. According to the Association of Iranian Journalists (AoIJ), an IFJ affiliate, there are still 20 journalists in detention.

IPI Urges Cuba to Release 22 Imprisoned Journalists

The International Press Institute rightly denounced a disappointing UN Human Rights Council report commending Cuba for "its achievements in the promotion of the rights to education, food and health."

The UN Council, in its Universal Periodic Review, left out a crucial component of any nation's human rights record, how it deals with freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

And when it comes to those fundamental rights, very few countries in the world can match Cuba's dismal record.

Even though IPI welcomed recommendations by the Council to lift restrictions on those rights, it called again for the release of 22 imprisoned journalists, one of the world's highest numbers and certainly a huge rate for an island of only 3 million inhabitants.

Here is the full IPI statement:

In a report adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in June as part of its Universal Periodic Review, Cuba was commended for its achievements in the promotion of the rights to education, food and health. However, various national delegations, including those of Canada, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Chile, Italy and Slovakia, expressed concern about Cuba’s violation of the right to freedom of expression and the continued imprisonment of journalists and human rights defenders.

In particular, the report states: “In 2003, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention held that the deprivation of liberty of 79 persons was arbitrary and requested Cuba to remedy this situation.” Among those arrested in the 2003 political crackdown were 29 journalists, 21 of whom remain in prison today.

“I am indeed glad to see that the report includes concerns about the lack of freedom of expression in Cuba as well as recommendations to lift restrictions on this fundamental right,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “However, I feel that these concerns are not given enough visibility in a report that also extensively commends Cuba’s achievements in the field of social and economic rights, providing a relatively positive assessment of the general human rights situation in the country.”

Noting the risk of disregarding the importance of freedom of expression and media freedom as pillars of any country’s political, social and economic stability, Dadge said, “Cuba’s suppression of dissenting voices, thoroughly and systematically carried out for so many years, strongly affects our ability to understand and assess the situation in the country. As many countries are reviewing their foreign policies toward Cuba, the need to listen to those suppressed voices becomes even greater.”

Among the cases highlighted in IPI’s “Justice Denied” campaign is that of Cuban journalist Omar Rodriguez Saludes, director of the independent news agency Nueva Prensa Cubana in Havana, who was arrested during the March 2003 crackdown on Cuba's political dissidents and independent journalists. Rodriguez was sentenced to 27 years in prison, the longest sentence handed down to any of the 29 journalists arrested in the 2003 crackdown.

Speaking to IPI about recent changes within Cuba’s government and renewed hopes that Rodriguez may be granted leniency, the journalist’s wife, Ileana Marrero Joa, said, “The term ‘leniency’ is not correct, because what we need is ‘justice’ and he should be freed, since he did not commit any crime.”

Rodríguez began his journalistic career in 1995 as a freelance reporter and photographer. He later joined Nueva Prensa Cubana, where he wrote about political repression under the Castro regime, among other topics, and soon became the agency's director.

A new IPI video, featuring interviews with members of Rodriguez’s family and photographs taken by the journalist, is a powerful reminder that fundamental rights are still being violated in Cuba.

Quick Times

Washington Post publisher in epicenter of ethics uproar.

New York Times reporter who fled the Taliban welcomed back to paper with thunderous applause.

Gambia tries seven journalists for alleged seditious publication and other offenses.

PC makers, including Acer and Sony, voluntarily supply Internet filter in China.

23 organizations from throughout Latin America condemn press freedom violations in Honduras.

US Justice Department confirms investigation into Google Books deal.

Quick Times

China postpones mandatory installation of controversial filtering software.

The Honduran Coup is also a putsch against press freedom.

CPJ issues special report about Nicaragua's "Daniel Ortega's Media War."

Gannett News Service to lay off more than 1,000 workers.

Is Twitter the 21st Century's news service? The Associated Press should know.

Another Russian editor dies in suspicious circumstances.

Quick Times

Should Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and other Internet giants help reinforce China’s Information Dam?

China's Xinhua official news agency to launch English-language version.

Huge surge of magazine sales predicted as a result of Michael Jackson’s death.

Crackdown on media raises number of imprisoned journalists in Iran to 33, a world record.

Brigham Young University lifts its 3-year-old ban on YouTube.

TV journalist shot and wounded in the Ecuadorian city of Esmeraldas.

Quick Times

Michael Jackson's death cripples Internet.

China, Cuba, Burma and other authoritarian regimes censor news from Iran.

China's most prominent dissident formally arrested after more than six months in detention.

Brazilian daily forced to shut down because of US$306,000 defamation fine.

Bolivian TV channel denounces harassment on reporter after informing about crime situation.

Ecuadorian president limits official advertisement in media after several newspapers reported on alleged corruption by his brother.

Historic sentence against official Moroccan news agency in Spain for interfering with independent journalist.

The Revolution That Revolutionized News

Iran's Green Revolution has brought down much more than the cozy sense of security of the country's clerics.

It has established Internet social services, such as Twitter and YouTube, as more timely and reliable news services than traditional media giants, such as CNN International.

While the streets of Tehran were ablaze with the most violent protest since the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago, CNN was airing a show about exotic motorcycles.

Then, news junkies, turned to the Internet.

The Economist:

"Thanks to the internet, dedicated news-watchers knew what they were missing. Twitter and YouTube carried a stream of reports, pictures and film from Iran’s streets. The internet also facilitated media criticism. Twitter hosted an extraordinary outburst of fury against CNN and other news organisations. A typical post: “Iran went to hell. Media went to bed.”

Two Historic Legal Landmarks in Latin America

Press freedom forces around the world are welcoming two historic decisions, one in Brazil and another in Mexico, which could have profound repercussions in the entire region.

Brazil's Supreme Court has abolished a regulation that forces any one wishing to practice journalism to hold a university degree, an arbitrary requirement that has been repeatedly rejected by the inter-American justice system.

The Brazilian magistrates ruled the regulation to be unconstitutional and "a direct interference in freedom of expression."

On the other hand, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled that a state law that specifically protected public officials from public scrutiny, especially that of the press, also to be unconstitutional.

The statute was an insult law from the state of Guanajuato that was used to sentence a newspaper editor to three years in prison for libeling a former mayor.

The magistrates agreed with the opinions and jurisprudence of the inter-American justice system and ruled that "the rights to reputation and privacy of public officials are in general less extensive and enduring when freedom of expression is involved, due to the importance of the capability that the news media and public opinion in general need to exhaustively scrutinize the activities of government employees and officials."

This extraordinary double whammy of good news for press freedom in Latin America is most welcomed by this page and press freedom fighters around the world.

Leading Press Freedom Groups Urge UNESCO to Remain Vigilant

The Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations, an international alliance of the world's most prominent press freedom groups, issued a letter to UNESCO urging the UN cultural organization to remain vigilant and "to continue to act effectively in its function as a defender and champion of freedom of expression worldwide."

The letter, addressed to the Chairman of UNESCO's Executive Board, Ambassador Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yaï, focuses on recommending a set of standards for the selection of the organization's next director general.

Here is the full text of the letter:

Ambassador Olabiyi Babalola Joseph Yaï
Permanent Delegate of Benin to UNESCO
and Chairman, Executive Board of UNESCO
Permanent Delegation of Benin to UNESCO
Maison de l'UNESCO, _Bureau M4.04 _
1, rue Miollis _75732 PARIS Cedex15
   
Fax: 01.43.06.15.55
E-mail: dl.permanente-benin@unesco.org

15 June 2009

Your Excellency,

This letter is to inform you that the member groups of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations meeting recently in Paris expressed their concern that UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, should continue to act effectively in its function as a defender and champion of freedom of expression worldwide.

The Coordinating Committee members expressed their deep appreciation for the vital contributions of the outgoing UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura to consolidating UNESCO as a force for freedom of expression and to furthering free speech and press freedom values, in line with the UNESCO Constitution's mandate to foster “the free flow of information by word and image.”

The Coordinating Committee members therefore call upon UNESCO member-states to reaffirm their commitments to the defense and promotion of freedom of expression and press freedom as core criteria in considering the choice of the next Director General.

It is critical that UNESCO member governments should seek commitments from candidates to head the Organization's Secretariat to:

—Continue to make furtherance of freedom of expression and press freedom central to the Programme of UNESCO's Communication & Information Sector;
—Continue to support the fostering of independent news media as the leading criterion in the choice of UNESCO media aid projects in post-conflict zones and elsewhere and continue to support UNESCO's Intergovernmental Program for the Development of Communication, using the same priority   criterion;
—Continue to name independent journalists widely respected by their colleagues as members of the Jury for UNESCO's annual World Press Freedom Prize and continue to honor the independent Jury's choices of Prize laureates;
—Continue to spotlight and speak out publicly against assassinations of news media personnel and to undertake effective diplomatic measures against serious incidents or policies that obstruct the work of the news media.

The member groups of the Coordinating Committee look forward to continuing their cooperation with the new Director General and the Secretariat staff in the cause of freedom of expression and free and independent journalism, nationally, regionally and globally.

The Coordinating Committee accordingly calls upon UNESCO's member states to reaffirm that a commitment in practice to uphold the values of freedom of expression and press freedom embodied in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right      includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive      and impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers” -

should be uppermost in the policies of the next Director General of UNESCO. The image and legitimacy of UNESCO depend upon this.

We respectfully request that you communicate this letter to the members of UNESCO's Executive Board.

Sincerely,

Joel Simon, Executive Director, Committee to Protect Journalists, New York City
Hector Oscar Amengual, Director General, International Association of Broadcasting,    
     Montevideo, Uruguay
Julio Munoz, Executive Director, Inter American Press Institute, Miami
David Dadge, Director, International Press Institute, Vienna
Timothy Balding, Chief Executive Officer, World Association of Newspapers, Paris
Mark Bench, Executive Director, World Press Freedom Committee, Washington DC

cc: Koichiro Matsuura, Director General, UNESCO

Twitter, a Censor's International Nightmare

When you hear the BBC's world editor saying something like this: “The days when regimes can control the flow of information are over,” you know you are living in interesting times.

That's what Jon Williams told The New York Times on Tuesday when one of the world's most trusted news websites informed that its Persian-language TV channel was receiving five videos a minute from regular Iranian citizens trying to break their regime's news block-out.

You almost can see the Iranian censors going mad trying to stick their fingers into a news dam that has been leaking like a World War I submarine amid the unbearable pressure of hundreds of thousands of defiant pro-reform demonstrators who have proven to be as apt to resisting the regime's electoral shenanigans as to beating the censors at the game of Internet whack-a-mole.

If the pen was mightier than the sword, the Internet is wearing a mighty bullet-proof vest in this Iranian revolution. And the US is helping it to be even harder to penetrate.

The New York Times:

On Monday afternoon, a 27-year-old State Department official, Jared Cohen, e-mailed the social-networking site Twitter with an unusual request: delay scheduled maintenance of its global network, which would have cut off service while Iranians were using Twitter to swap information and inform the outside world about the mushrooming protests around Tehran.

The request, made to a Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, is yet another new-media milestone: the recognition by the United States government that an Internet blogging service that did not exist four years ago has the potential to change history in an ancient Islamic country.

“This was just a call to say: ‘It appears Twitter is playing an important role at a crucial time in Iran. Could you keep it going?’ ” said P.J. Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs.

Twitter complied with the request, saying in a blog post on Monday that it put off the upgrade until late Tuesday afternoon — 1:30 a.m. Wednesday in Tehran — because its partners recognized “the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran.” The network was working normally again by Tuesday evening.

The State Department said its request did not amount to meddling. Mr. Cohen, they noted, did not contact Twitter until three days after the vote was held and well after the protests had begun.

The move is part of the Obama administration's new approach that freedom of expression does play a powerful role in bringing democracy to despotic regimes.

The episode demonstrates the extent to which the administration views social networking as a new arrow in its diplomatic quiver. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks regularly about the power of e-diplomacy, particularly in places where the mass media are repressed.

Mr. Cohen, a Stanford University graduate who is the youngest member of the State Department’s policy planning staff, has been working with Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other services to harness their reach for diplomatic initiatives in Iraq and elsewhere.

And we applaud these efforts. Not long ago, Twitter sounded just like another chirping in today's information jungle. Little did we know it would end up roaring in the ears of censors the world over.