Signs of Zimbabwean Times

Empty supermarkets, a worthless currency, an impending famine in what used to be the breadbasket of Southern Africa.

The dictatorship of Robert Mugabe and its ruthless clamp down on the country's independent media are quickly exhausting Zimbabwe's hope reserves.

(Photos courtesy of www.swradioafrica.com)

In Tanzania, Indepedent Journalists Show Resolve

We have reported about Tanzania's independent media standing up to arbitrary media black-outs.

Journalists march in Dar el Salaam.

One would think that, given the odds against them, they would waiver. Think again. These people have steel in their backbones. Let's have it from Dar el Salaam's The Guardian, a name that is not only for show:

Editors from different media houses yesterday staged a peaceful demonstration to register their opposition to a government ban on MwanaHALISI weekly tabloid.

The peaceful march that started at Lugoda Street, Gerezani near Business Times offices and headed to the information ministry offices along Samora Avenue in Dar es Salaam, was also supported by activists from other organisations.

The editors marched with sealed mouths, being a mark of silencing the media and suppressing its freedom. They also displayed placards that carried varied messages, all opposed to the banning of MwanaHALISI.

Some of the placards read as follows: ``The government should not temper with press freedom, Mwanahalisi is banned but the corrupt leaders are still in office.`` ``Who revealed the EPA, Richmond and UVCCM scandals?`` ``We want MwanaHalisi back.``

``We shall continue writing until the end of this world.`` ``The newspapers Act of 1976 should be abandoned; MwanaHaLISI is the ear, mouth and eye of every Tanzanian.``

                                                                

We are not used to good press freedom news. But Tanzania's independent media keep making us all proud. 

Europeana: A Welcome Addition to Open-Ended Knowledge

Most of the posts on this blog, unfortunately, have to do with restriction of knowledge.

Very rarely do we encounter the opportunity to write about initiatives that aim at opening up the gates of knowledge. This is one of them.

The European Union is about to launch a digital encyclopedia of Europe's cultural heritage, and they are already calling it Europeana.

"Europeana" is an ambitious project to digitize large portions of the continent's national libraries and put as much of European civilization as possible — books, maps, paintings, photos, films — online for free.

The Web site at the moment just has a demonstration tour. But Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, has promised to have two million digitized "objects" available for full public browsing — in English, German and French — by November 20.

Europeana will let a reader start, say, with an image of the Mona Lisa. Then it will encourage a stroll through related paintings, music, books or other artifacts using data tags ("Leonardo da Vinci," "portraits," "Italy," even a color) — or a timeline of European history.

The project ostensibly presents itself as a competitor to the Google Library Project, which since 2004 has already scanned some 10 million books and other pieces.

We love to hear this kind of competition is taking place. What project can make the most knowledge available to the most people for free, and the fastest?

Get set, ready, go!

A Insulting Lack of Sense of Humor

Countries whose leaders are still considered protected by divine intervention really need to get a healthy load of sense of humor.

Take the Moroccan Crown, for example, one of the world's most entrenched, unaccountable monarchies, who is barricaded behind a battery of ancient laws, insult laws that is, designed to keep the public away from its dealings.

(EPA photo)

This medieval approach to government has taken a very heavy toll on Morocco's development and international standing. Yet, the king of Morocco, Mohamed VI (above), and his very wealthy entourage insist on clinging on to these laws and their abusive punishments to keep 99.99 percent of Moroccans in the dark about their government's business.

Until something very harmless, very infantile and very embarrassing hits the international news. Then the curtains covering this edifice of deception are blown away. Here is from the BBC:

A Moroccan schoolboy, aged 18, has been jailed for insulting the king, after replacing the monarch's name with that of his favourite football club.

He altered the phrase "God, The Nation, The King" on the school blackboard to read "God, The Nation, Barcelona".

FC Barcelona says it has appointed a lawyer to look into whether they can help the boy, within the framework of Moroccan law.

In several cases young men have been jailed for insulting the royal family.

The BBC's James Copnall in Rabat says it is not completely clear whether the court felt the remarks about the football club or other apparent insults to the king were the problem.

The Moroccan justice ministry has not commented on the case.

So far the score is: Sense of Humor Football Club, 1 - Moroccan Crown Clowns, 0.

PS: You've got to love the reaction by FC Barcelona, a club whose only uniform advertisement reads "UNICEF."

(EPA photo)

Global Network Initiative Launched

As we anticipated yesterday, the Global Network Initiative was launched today with the backing of a very diverse alliance of both corporate and civil society organizations, including the World Press Freedom Committee.

Mark Bench, Executive Director of the World Press Freedom Committee, had this to say about the launching of the initiative:

As the world increasingly obtains its news and information from a press that is making a progressively larger — or even exclusive — use of the Internet, old problems must be attacked in new ways. Longstanding censorship issues such as laws imposing criminal penalties for alleged defamation or even truthful statements that "insult" a head of state (or other government officials) become even more damaging when the last bastion for the wrongfully persecuted, protecting oneself under the cloak of anonymity that the Internet may provide, cannot be fully utilized. These principles assist the press and any other citizens who seek to inform and influence others by ensuring a strong united front against the government persecution and censorship that is often effected against the lone dissenter.

Here is the official announcement:

In an effort to protect and advance the human rights of freedom of expression and privacy, a diverse coalition of leading information and communications companies, major human rights organizations, academics, investors and technology leaders today launched the Global Network Initiative.

From the Americas to Europe to the Middle East to Africa and Asia, companies in the information and communications industries face increasing government pressure to comply with domestic laws and policies that require censorship and disclosure of personal information in ways that conflict with internationally recognized human rights laws and standards.

The Initiative is founded upon new Principles on Freedom of Expression and Privacy – supported by specific implementation commitments and a framework for accountability and learning – that provide a systematic approach for companies, NGOs, investors, academics and others to work together in resisting efforts by governments that seek to enlist companies in acts of censorship and surveillance that violate international standards.

The Initiative is being launched in the 60th Anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is founded upon the internationally recognized human rights for freedom of expression and privacy set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Principles and accompanying Implementation Guidelines require significant new commitments from participating companies, including: establishing greater transparency with users; assessing human rights risk; requesting the legal rationale for government actions and policies; training employees; challenging human rights violations; and providing whistle-blowing mechanisms through which violations of the Principles can be reported.

The participants recognize that responsible company actions alone cannot guarantee that human rights are not violated. Instead, governments have the ultimate responsibility to ensure that human rights are respected, protected, promoted and fulfilled. That is why the Initiative establishes significant new commitments for company, NGO, investor and academic participants to collaborate with each other to promote the rule of law and the adoption of laws, policies and practices that protect and respect freedom of expression and privacy.

Protecting freedom of expression and privacy in a climate of rapidly changing technologies, products and services is a complex and constantly evolving task, so collaboration among participants to lobby governments, dialogue with stakeholders in local markets and share learning from their experiences will be critical to the success of the Initiative.

The participants also announced the formation of an organization to promote and support the long-term success of the Initiative. A multi-stakeholder governance structure for the Initiative is being established to support joint efforts by all participants and ensure the accountability of the participating companies.

The success of the Initiative in establishing a worldwide standard requires a global perspective that is broadly based in the information and communications industry. Therefore, a key priority of the Initiative is actively recruiting new members – from business, academia, investors, and civil society – with a clear commitment to the advancement of freedom of expression and privacy.

The Initiative is the outcome of a multi-stakeholder process that began in 2006 and was formalized in early 2007. The group has closely examined issues and cases relating to freedom of expression and privacy around the world, as well as relevant international laws and standards and a number of global multi-stakeholder processes in other industries.

Christian Science Monitor to Stop Print Edition

Just about to celebrate its 100th anniversary, the Christian Science Monitor is announcing it will stop publishing its print edition and shift completely to Internet operations starting April 2009.

It will be the first national newspaper in the US to make this radical change, yet another symptom of the steady decline of the US newspaper industry.

The announcement is on the paper's front page of its Internet edition:

This new, multiplatform strategy for the Monitor will "secure and enlarge the Monitor's role in its second century," said Mary Trammell, editor in chief of The Christian Science Publishing Society and a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors. Mrs. Trammell said that "journalism that seeks to bless humanity, not injure, and that shines light on the world's challenges in an effort to seek solutions, is at the center of Mary Baker Eddy's vision for the Monitor. The method of delivery and format are secondary" and need to be adjusted, given Mrs. Eddy's call to keep the Monitor "abreast of the times."

While the Monitor's print circulation, which is primarily delivered by US mail, has trended downward for nearly 40 years, "looking forward, the Monitor's Web readership clearly shows promise," said Judy Wolff, chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society. "We plan to take advantage of the Internet in order to deliver the Monitor's journalism more quickly, to improve the Monitor's timeliness and relevance, and to increase revenue and reduce costs. We can do this by changing the way the Monitor reaches its readers."

(...)

The Monitor, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on Nov. 25, was launched at the direction of church founder Eddy, who had been the subject of a searing legal and journalistic attack by Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. Officials of her church had a professional news organization up and running in just over 100 days.

Global Network Initiative to Be Launched Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Oct. 29, will see the worldwide launching of the Global Network Initiative (GNI), an effort to improve free speech and privacy protection on the Internet.

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, along with several NGO's, including the World Press Freedom Committee, will introduce a set of principles to "avoid or minimize the impact of government restrictions on freedom of expression."

Here is from The New York Times:

Stating that privacy is “a human right and guarantor of human dignity,” the initiative commits the companies to try to resist overly broad demands for restrictions on freedom of speech and overly broad demands that could compromise the privacy of their users.

The initiative was begun after human rights groups and Congress criticized the Internet companies for cooperating with Chinese government censorship and demands for information on dissidents. In addition to laying out the code of conduct, the initiative will provide a non-governmental forum for the companies and human rights groups to jointly resist demands for censorship. It will also establish a system of independent auditors to rate the companies’ conduct.

“This is an important first step in providing standards for free expression and privacy that obligate companies to do more to challenge government restrictions,” said Michael Posner, president of Human Rights First, who agreed to discuss the initiative after The Times obtained the documents. “It sets up an accountability mechanism that will allow each of the companies to be evaluated over time.”

Governments throughout the world, especially China, are embarked in ambitious censorship schemes aimed at eliminating the Internet's most powerful feature, its worldwide free flow of ideas.

At least two European telecommunications companies, France Télécom and Vodafone, are considering being part of GNI. On the other hand, US corporations AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel, who were willing participants in the Bush administration's illegal spying in the US, are still to sign on this initiative.

The Milk Stain That Won't Go Away

The China milk scandal, a vicious
circle of corruption (EPA photo)

The more we dig into the Chinese tainted milk scandal, the worse it stinks, and at the core of this boiling pot of corruption is the Chinese regime's hermetic tendencies.

Reporters without Borders' Washington Representative Licie Morillon confirms that official censorship was the main culprit of the scandal's disastrous consequences that have left four babies dead and 53,000 sickened in China.

Last July, a journalist working for the investigative weekly Nanfang Zhoumo (Southern Weekend) gathered reliable information regarding a wave of hospitalizations of new-born babies, with four killed and 53,000 sickened. These illnesses were linked to powered milk made by Chinese dairy company Sanlu. The writer's editor, however, decided not to publish the story for fear of government reprisal. As a result, China had to wait until after the Olympic Games, until early September, before another news outlet dared to publish this explosive news.

Fu Jianfeng, an editor at Southern Weekend posted a damning indictment on his blog after the scandal became public in September:

"Actually, our reporter He Feng had received the information at the end of July that more than 20 babies were hospitalized for kidney stones in Tongji Hospital, Wuhan city, Hubei province as a result of consuming the tainted Sanlu milk powder. But for reasons that everybody knows, we were not able to investigate the case at that time because harmony was needed everywhere. As a news editor, I was deeply concerned because I sensed that this was going to be a huge public health catastrophe. But I could not send any reporters to investigate. Therefore, I harbored a deep sense of guilt and defeat at the time."

Morillon provides pains-taking details of how an entrenched bureaucracy's addiction to secrecy made a bad situation catastrophic.

Talking about the absolute opposite of milk and honey.

Tunisian Free Press at the Mercy of All Mighty State

On Oct. 8, the independent online magazine Kalima, a strong critic of the regime of President Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, was disabled and its content completely destroyed.

Kalima's editor-in-chief, Sihem Bensedrine, has no doubt that the attack was perpetrated by someone in close cooperation with the regime of President Ben Ali, and proves once more press freedom in Tunisia, at least for now, is a chimera.

Kalima's case is not unique as other Tunisian independent sites have been shut down in the past, including Tunisnews and Tunisiawatch.

Leading human rights activist Naziha Rjiba (above) distributed the following opinion piece about the attack on Kalima:

After a long and hard fight against an illness which preoccupied me for the entire summer, I recovered  finally my health and prepared to pick up my pen again. But it is vain to talk about health in a country that is sick and where the climate is contaminated.  The hand of injustice, cowardice and pettiness hit the website of "Kalima" to reduce it to nothing.

The attacked was one, but the attackers many; it is imperative to unveil  them.

The regime is without any doubt the instigator of the attack against our website. Because it's a regime of pirates and highway men, and particularly if these highways would lead  toward the discovery of the true and hideous nature of this regime, like the  road followed by "Kalima".

Thus, this new abuse of power is a new indicator which denounces the regime and sheds light not only  on its nature, but also on the level of its fear of seeing its face mirrored  by a free media, which does not practise neither complaisance nor opportunism,  and which does not sacrifice truth under any pretext or for any kind of  benefit.

It is the hand of a Tunisian expert , a male or female computer engineer, which must have executed this  abuse. This expert is probably a frequent and insatiable visitor to the site of "Kalima" and other sites of the citizens' resistance to oppression, who  likes to read their content and admire the courage of their contributors.  Nevertheless, this expert has executed the orders that were dictated to him to destroy what he had learned to love.

US Newspapers Circulation Continues Steep Decline

The Washington Post is one of the big losers.

The last six months recorded, from April to September of this year, 507 major US newspaper circulation dropped by 4.6 percent, Editor & Publisher, the industry's trade publication, reports.

The daily drop was made worse by an even steeper 4.8 percent decline in Sunday sales, which more than doubles the size of the previous period's performance, 2.6 percent.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, "daily circulation slipped 4.6% to 38,165,848 copies. For the 571 papers, Sunday dropped 4.8% to 43,631,646 copies."

Daily circulation at The New York Times fell 3.5% to 1,000,665 copies.

The Wall Street Journal (as we reported last week) was virtually flat, up about 117 copies on a daily basis to 2,011,999. USA Today was also up a fraction of a percent to 2,293,310 copies.

But The Washington Post's daily circulation declined 1.9% to 622,714. Sunday was down 3.1% to 866,057. At the Los Angeles Times circulation decreased a little more 5% daily and on Sunday to 739,147 and 1,055,076, respectively. Daily circulation at the Chicago Tribune was down 7.7% to 516,032. Sunday declined 5.7% to 864,845 copies.

The San Francisco Chronicle lost 7% of its daily circulation to 339,430 copies while Sunday was down a hair more, 7.4% to 398,116. The San Jose Mercury News was down slightly, 1.9% to 224,199 and Sunday was down much more, 4.3% to 241,518.

The bleeding is not unique to US newspapers, as we reported here. And as we said back then, the newspaper industry needs to find a winning formula that integrates the Internet variable into its, so far, losing equation.