HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!

New Year celebrations in Sydney, Australia.
(EPA photo)

Press Freedom in 2008: Better Numbers, Worse Repression

Reporters without Borders has issued its "Press Freedom Round-Up 2008," and results are mixed.

On one hand, the survey came back with better numbers in terms of the killing of journalists; and on the other, harassment, intimidation and censorship of the media has worsened, including Western countries, and it is fast spreading to the Internet.

The fall in the number of journalists from the traditional media killed or arrested in 2008 does not mean the press freedom situation has improved. As the print and broadcast media evolve and the blogosphere becomes a worldwide phenomenon, predatory activity is increasingly focusing on the Internet.

In this respect, the figures speak for themselves. In 2008, someone was for the first time killed while acting as a “citizen journalist.” It was Chinese businessman Wei Wenhua, who was beaten to death by “chengguan” (municipal police officers) while filming a clash with demonstrators in Tianmen (in Hubei province) on 7 January. Cases of online censorship were recorded in 37 countries, above all China (93 websites censored), Syria (162 websites censored) and Iran (38 websites censored).

According to the RSF tally, in 2008, 60 journalists were killed, 673 were arrested, 929 were physically attacked or threatened, 29 were kidnapped and 253 media outlets were censored.

As for the Internet, one blogger was killed (the first ever), 59 arrested, 45 physically attacked and 1,740 websites were blocked or suspended.

The RSF report also highlights the regions were the practice of journalism is most dangerous:

The Asia-Pacific and Maghreb-Middle East regions are still the deadliest for the press. After Iraq (with 15 journalists killed), the two countries with the highest death tolls are Pakistan (7 killed) and the Philippines (6 killed). The bloodshed continues in Mexico, where four journalists were murdered in connection with their work. The fall in the death toll in Africa (from 12 in 2007 to 3 in 2008) is due above all to the fact that many journalists stopped working, often going into exile, and to the gradual disappearance of news media in war zones such as Somalia.

The number of arrests (for periods of more than 48 hours) is particularly high in Africa, where it is almost routine for journalists to end up in police cells when they upset senior officials or cover subjects that are off-limits. In Iraq (31 arrests), the US military’s handling of the security situation often results in Iraqi journalists, including those working for foreign news media, being imprisoned. In China (38 arrests), many cases of detention were attributable to the Olympics. In Burma (17 arrests), outspoken journalists and bloggers were jailed in a crackdown by the military government.

The report pays special attention to the censorship and repression shift toward the Internet, as the influence of other traditional forms of media are losing their clout, especially in Western countries.

In 2008, someone was for the first time killed while acting as a “citizen journalist.” It was Chinese businessman Wei Wenhua, who was beaten to death by “chengguan” (municipal police officers) while filming a clash with demonstrators in Tianmen (in Hubei province) on 7 January. Cases of online censorship were recorded in 37 countries, above all China (93 websites censored), Syria (162 websites censored) and Iran (38 websites censored).

There are democracies that do not lag far behind in terms of online surveillance and repression. Taboos established by the monarchy in Thailand and by the military in Turkey are so tenacious that incautious Internet users are increasingly being monitored and punished by the police. Video-sharing websites such as YouTube and Dailymotion are favourite targets of government censors. It is becoming more and more common for sites to be blocked or filtered because of content that officials have deemed “offensive.” A visceral reaction from some governments towards participatory websites, especially social networking sites, is beginning to give rise to cases of “mass censorship.” The censorship of sites such as Twitter (in Syria) or Facebook (blocked in Syria and Tunisia, and filtered in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates) leads to massive amounts of content being blocked - an effect that is considerably compounded when combined with other standard methods of control.

Governments are increasingly responding with imprisonment to criticism by bloggers. In China, 10 cyber-dissidents were arrested, 31 were physically attacked or threatened, and at least three were tried and convicted. In Iran, Reporters Without Borders registered 18 arrests, 31 physical attacks and 10 convictions. Online free expression is also curtailed in Syria (8 arrests and 3 convictions), Egypt (6 arrests) and Morocco (2 arrests and 2 convictions).

Internet freedom has been crushed with particular severity in Burma, where the military government has arrested and tried blogger and comedian Zarganar and the young cyber-dissident Nay Phone Latt in a disgraceful manner and sentenced them to incredibly severe jail terms (59 years for the former, 20 years for the latter). These two men join Burma’s many other political prisoners, who include 16 journalists.

Interesting Times has paid close attention to this increasing crackdown on Internet journalism. Our search engine can take you to many specific examples of this phenomenon. But the very existence of this blog and hundreds of thousands more around the world dedicated to the ancestral human activity of communicating with others is also a healthy sign that, regardless of the many obstacles, the Internet remains a healthy way of communication.

So let’s make our new year's resolution to keep fighting for this wonderful means of communication to remain as vibrant as it can be.

Grim Prospects for the Zimbabwean People in 2009

That's the conclusion of an alert by Amnesty International (AI) titled "Zimbabwe, a Population on the Edge of Collapse." AI warns that unless a settlement is reached that ends the current political stalemate, Zimbabweans being besieged by disease and starvation with devastating consequences.

Thousands of Zimbabweans are facing death following a cholera outbreak that started in August, while nearly half of the population is in desperate need of food aid. International response to the multiple crises facing the country is being complicated by the Zimbabwean authorities’ repeated attempts to politicise humanitarian work and cover up the extent of the problems bedevilling the southern African country for political reasons.

The cholera outbreak that started in August has exposed the extent of decline of the health services. Officially, over 1,200 people have died while nearly 24,000 cases have been recorded. However, the actual death toll is believed to be higher than that being reported, mainly due to a lack of capacity to document all the cases.

Amnesty International was told by asylum seekers who had just arrived in South Africa from Zimbabwe that, in some villages, as many as 10 deaths were being recorded. A number of major hospitals have been closed, while the remaining doctors and nurses at state hospitals have been on prolonged strikes over poor working conditions and shortage of drugs. Church-run hospitals, which had provided relief for many rural communities, are also reported to be on the verge of collapse.
(...)
Over five million Zimbabweans are facing severe food shortages and are dependent on international humanitarian efforts. Those fleeing hunger in the provinces of Masvingo and Matabeleland, interviewed by Amnesty International in December in the South African border town of Musina, told the organisation that many rural families were now living on wild fruit.

Humanitarian workers also told Amnesty International that the 2008-9 farming season was a failure for many families who were unable to secure seed and fertilisers. The number of those in need of food aid is likely to increase in 2009.

A combination of political instability, the cholera outbreak and severe food insecurity is driving thousands of Zimbabweans to cross the borders into neighbouring countries. As many as 1,000 unaccompanied children are reported to be in the border town of Musina alone. Those fleeing also include younger people from rural areas who fear further political violence if the political agreement signed by the major political parties in Zimbabwe on 15 September collapses.

We are saddened by the fate of the Zimbabwean people, victims of the terrible corruption and incompetence of a dictator, Robert Mugabe, who keeps both denying reality and blaming foreign ghosts for his own sins.

We also believe AI's predictions will come to fruition unless another critical component play a crucial role in this reversal of fortunes: a free and independent press that, instead of being harassed and prosecuted, is allowed to keep the public informed about matters of literally life or death.

The Mysterious Ways of the Chinese Censors

The New York Times reports that its page is now accessible in Mainland China after being blocked on Thursday without any explanation from the busy Chinese censors.

The Chinese government usually blocks access to Web sites that it deems to have sensitive information, including sites with information about Tibet, Taiwan and Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement.

During the Summer Olympics in August, the government lifted bans on some sites, such as the Chinese-language site of BBC News; it then reimposed the bans in recent weeks, affecting the BBC site and other sites such as the Chinese language versions of Voice of America and Asiaweek, before lifting them again last week.

Government employees reached by telephone on Monday said they did not know why the site of The New York Times was blocked in recent days.

Now you see it now you don't seems to be the Chinese censors' motto.

International Support for Chinese Dissident Grows

The case of imprisoned Chinese intellectual Liu Xiaobo is quickly becoming an international cause célèbre and a growing embarrassment for the Beijing regime.

More than 160 prominent intellectuals from many parts of the world, and also China itself, have signed an open letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao urging him to release Liu, who was imprisoned earlier this month.

Here's from the International Herald Tribune:

The letter to Hu indicates that the case of Liu Xiaobo, the intellectual, is quickly turning into the latest human rights cause célèbre in China and could further embarrass the Communist Party at a time when Chinese leaders are celebrating the 30th anniversary of its policy of "reform and opening up."

Among the writers signing the letter are three Nobel laureates in literature - Nadine Gordimer, Seamus Heaney and Wole Soyinka - as well as other scribes who regularly champion freedom of expression, including Umberto Eco and Salman Rushdie.

Just as notable is the fact that an array of foreign China scholars have signed the petition. Academics specializing in Chinese studies are often cautious about taking stands on political issues deemed sensitive by the Communist Party because the Chinese government has a track record of denying visas to people who publicly oppose the party's views. Some of the scholars who signed the petition are already on the Chinese government's blacklist, while others still have regular access to the country.

The 53-year-old literary critic was taken by police on Dec. 8 and not heard from since. His "crime" is being one of the leaders of Charter 08, a manifesto signed by more than 300 Chinese intellectuals and dissidents urging the Communist Party to adopt decisive steps toward democracy and accountability. Some of them were also arrested, but Liu is the only one who is still in prison.

Judicial harassment and prison are nothing new to Liu.

Liu has been a pillar of political dissent in China for years. He supported the Tiananmen Square protests of June 1989 and continued his dissident writings afterward, work that led to detention by the authorities. Starting in 1996, he spent three years in re-education through labor for having "repeatedly stirred up trouble and disrupted public order." Since 1999, he has been allowed to continue his activism, presumably with the permission of the country's leaders, but has been under surveillance.

Perhaps the Chinese bosses will finally realize they cannot have it both ways, celebrating their alleged openness with one hand and imprisoning those who disagree with them with the other.

'Zimbabwe Is Mine,' Says Mugabe, While His Country Withers away

Robert Mugabe (EPA photo)

Entrenched in his bunker mentality, his people be damned, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe told his dwindling number of followers that the country is his to do whatever he pleases.

Mugabe, oblivious to a country falling apart at the seams, dared any African nation to try to wrestle power from him, the Associated Press reports.

The ever-defiant Mugabe -- in power for nearly three decades -- hit back after the top U.S. envoy to Africa called for the "person who has ruined the country" to step down.

"I will never, never sell my country. I will never, never, never surrender," Mugabe told members of his ZANU-PF party. "Zimbabwe is mine, I am a Zimbabwean, Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe never for the British. Britain for the British."

He was cheered by flag-waving supporters at an annual three-day convention in Bindura, 60 miles (90 kilometers) northeast of Harare, the capital. Some wore shirts printed with pictures of Mugabe's face and sang his praise: "Stay with us. We know you are our president."

Mugabe, 84, has ruled the country since its 1980 independence from Britain and refused to leave office following disputed elections in March.

In the midst of widespread starvation, a runaway cholera epidemic that has killed more than a 1,000 people and a currency not even accepted as toilet paper, the international community, including the US, Britain and France, have called for Mugabe to step down.

But the balance of power may very well rest on South Africa, the one country in the region with sufficient influence and diplomatic weight to make Mugabe's life much more uncomfortable.

But who knows? Maybe Mugabe is right, and no African country has the courage to stand up to him.

China Blocks Access to The New York Times Website

Only in Mainland China. It can be accessed in Japan, the US or even Hong Kong.

But the Chinese government had no explanation for the mysterious disappearance of the website from Chinese computers.

A spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing quoted by The Times said they were" not really familiar with the details," adding that "Website maintenance is not within the job purview of the Foreign Ministry."

Another official from Beijing's International Press Center also was at a loss for words, only guessing, "It might be a technical problem.

The Times says the problems started on Friday morning, and that "some users were cut off on Thursday as early as 8 pm."

The Times' website seems to be one of few exceptions because "the Chinese-language Web sites of BBC, Voice of America and Asiaweek, all of which had been blocked earlier this week, were accessible by Friday," the article said.

The interruptions The Times refers to were apparently triggered, as we reported on Tuesday, by the ever-present issue of Taiwan's right to exist, even though the Beijing spokesperson never specifically named that country.

A official, however, justified the blocking by saying other countries, such as Britain and Australia had also censored website, without mentioning that that content had to do with child pornography and terrorism.

WPFC Letter to Zimbabwe's President on Abduction, Other Abuses against Media

Thw World Press Freedom Committee today sent the following  letter to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, members of his government and national and international media denouncing the recent abduction of a journalist and official threats to deny accreditation to representatives of foreign media:

Dec. 19, 2008

President Robert G. Mugabe
Office of the President
Munhumutapa Building
Samora Machel Avenue
Box 7700 Causeway
Harare,
Zimbabwe

Dear Mr. President:

The World Press Freedom Committee (www.wpfc.org) —an organization representing 45 press freedom groups from throughout the world— is profoundly distressed by the systematic repression the Zimbabwean independent media is subject to by agents of your own government, including judicial harassment, threats, intimidation campaigns and also abductions, such as that of independent photojournalist Shadreck Manyere.

According to press reports, Mr. Manyere was abducted on Saturday, Dec. 13, from a car garage in Norton, 40 km. west of Harare, where he went after receiving a phone call from a person who wanted to meet him. That was the last time Mr. Manyere was seen.

According to information provided to WPFC, on Sunday, Dec. 14, a group of men identifying themselves as members of the Law and Order section of police went to his home and requested to search it alleging that Mr. Manyere had died in a car accident. His wife refused to let them in, but they returned shortly afterward with a search warrant. Then they proceeded to ransack the house and took his laptop, video camera and some tapes with them.

We must emphasize that Mr. Manyere’s is only one of a number of abductions of political activists, human rights workers and journalists reported in recent days and that such extra-legal abductions must cease if Zimbabwe is to be seen as a country that respects the rule of law, both in terms of its own national legislation and in terms of international legal standards by which Zimbabwe is bound.

On a separate incident, your chief spokesperson, George Charamba, has threatened to ban the accreditation of all members of the foreign media, accusing them of “playing little gods” on the country’s affairs and of having embarked on a propaganda assault on Zimbabwe. The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) has stated that Mr. Charamba “was on a war path after accusing the foreign bureaus accredited in Zimbabwe of quoting President Robert Mugabe out of context, following his Dec. 11 remarks that the country had ‘arrested’ the cholera outbreak.”

According to MISA , the foreign media outlets that are under threat of being banned include “Britain's Reuters, Agence France Presse, Associated Press of the USA, France 24 International and Al Jazeera from Qatar, which are accused of  misrepresenting facts about Zimbabwe to suit the agendas of the news organisations' host nations.”

Mr. President, your country is going through the worst crisis in its history. Zimbabwe, the former breadbasket of southern Africa, is on the brink of famine and suffering the worst cholera epidemic in memory. The country’s economy has melted away, with hyperinflation rates so astronomical they are hard to comprehend. In these critical times, a free and independent media seeking the truth and duly informing the public constitutes a critical component of any dreams of recovery.

The Zimbabwean independent media, however, live in perpetual fear of fulfilling their moral, professional and constitutional duty to keep society informed about matters of, all too often, life or death in a country where the most basic civic rights are systematically violated.

The harassment and abduction of members of the media represent grave violations of free speech and freedom of the press, rights that are protected in the Zimbabwean Constitution and in international covenants, such as the African Convention on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, of which your country is signatory.

Therefore, Mr. President, we urge you to put the necessary measures in place to guarantee that the members of your country’s independent media, both national and international, can fulfill their duty to keep the public informed without any fears for their safety or their lives.

Respectfully,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee

CC: To the members of the Coordinating Committee of Press Freedom Organizations:
Committee to Protect Journalists

Commonwealth Press Union

Inter American Press Association

International Association of Broadcasting

International Federation of the Periodical Press

International Press Institute

North American Broadcasters Association

World Association of Newspapers

World Press Freedom Committee

To the members of the Zimbabwean government and national and international media.

Shoe-Throwing Journalist Asks for Pardon, Gets Marriage Proposal

The world does not seem to be getting enough of arguably the planet's most famous journalist.

(AP photo)

The Associated Press reports that Muntadhar al-Zeidi (above), who remains in prison in Baghdad, wrote a letter of apology to the country's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, describing his hurling two shoes at US President George Bush as "an ugly act."

"It is too late to reverse the big and ugly act that I perpetrated," al-Zeidi wrote in a letter delivered to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, according to the prime minister's spokesman.

The spokesman, Yassin Majid, told The Associated Press that al-Zeidi went on in the letter to recall an interview he conducted with the prime minister in 2005 when al-Maliki invited him into his home, saying: "Come in, it is your home too."

Al-Zeidi's brother, however, remains skeptical that he actually could have made such an apology. He added that relatives and other members of his brother's employer, the Al-Baghdadia television network based in Cairo, will stage a protest on Friday near the US-controlled Green Zone.

Meantime, Reuters reports that Cairo resident Saad Gumaa offered his 20-year-old daughter to be al-Zaidi's wife, saying "I have nothing more valuable than my daughter to offer him, and I am prepared to provide her with everything needed for marriage."

The potential bride apparently wholeheartedly agreed to the arrangement by saying that "This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero," as quoted by Reuters.

Al-Zaidi has been charged with insulting a foreign leader and attempted assault and is facing at least two years in prison.

Universal Blasphemy Law Drive Hits a Courageous Wall

The international drive to turn blasphemy laws into an international censorship standard hit a powerful roadblock in Geneva this month.

The four international rapporteurs for freedom of expression from Africa, Europe, Latin America and the United Nation issued a joint declaration urging the United Nations to reject this drive, mostly by Islamic countries, to internationalize the penalties for blasphemy.

The statement, published by the website of the Organization For Security And Cooperation In Europe (OSCE), reflects the common opinion of the rapporteurs for freedom of expression from the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, Faith Pansy Tlakula; the OSCE, Miklos Haraszti; the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Catalina Botero, and the UN Council on Human Rights, Frank La Rue.

And they all state in no unclear terms their opposition to this undemocratic effort.

The signatories agreed that the concept of 'defamation of religions' does not accord with international standards accepted by pluralistic and free societies. They said that international organizations should abstain from adopting statements supporting criminalization of 'defamation of religions'.

They also stressed that restrictions on freedom of expression should never be used to protect institutions, abstract notions, concepts or beliefs, including religious ones, and that such restrictions should be limited in scope to advocacy of hatred.

The drive for exporting the concept of criminal blasphemy has the backing of both the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Muslim World League, and was taken to the UN General Assembly on Nov. 13 by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who presented it to the world as an effort to bring the "Culture of Peace."

The proposal is trying to link blasphemy with the crimes of extremism and terrorism. But in their statement, the four rapporteurs say that one and the others are not interchangeable.

The four freedom of expression rapporteurs also advised that the definition of terrorism should be restricted to violent crimes which inflict terror on the public, and that vague notions such as 'providing communications support' or 'promoting' extremism or terrorism should not be criminalized unless they constitute incitement. They said that the role of the media should be respected in anti-extremism and anti-terrorism legislation.

 WPFC has repeatedly expressed its strong opinion about this issue. We believe both blasphemy and insult laws are ancient, obsolete pieces of legislation designed to silence the opinions of the people and shield religious, public or corporate officials from the criticism of the rest of society.

Both blasphemy and insult laws are the anti-matter to democracy and free-thinking. Come on, pleople, let's move on to the 21st Century