A Toxic Export: Criminal Defamation

American freelance journalist Joe Sharkey finds himself in the middle of a criminal law suit that supersedes borders and, quite frankly, civilized behavior.

The criminal proceedings have been started in Brazil, where any person has the right to feel injured in his/her national honor and bring criminal charges against the alleged attacker who dares to "insult" the honor of the country.

If this sounds backwards and outrageous to you, try to get in the shoes of Sharkey, a contributor to US publications, such as The New York Times, about Brazilian news. Fortunately for him, he is back in his country.

Sharkey's problems started in 2006 when he reported about a plane crash in Brazil in which he was part of the story —he was in the crashing plane.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the plaintiff, Rosane Gutjhar, a resident of Curitiba, filed the criminal suit in 2008 based on comments posted on Sharkey's blog about the accident, which included opinions by users calling Brazilians "archaic" and "idiots." Eventually the chargers were notified to Sharkey on Sept. 16.

Gutjhar, in her nationalistic mind, held Sharkey accountable for the comments, took him to court and is demanding US$279,850 in damages.

This example of overstretching the law, as abusive as the law can be, to settle a personal nationalistic score in detriment of freedom of the press and of expression sends a bone-chilling message to journalists not only in Brazil but throughout the world.

It almost makes us want to restrict the comments on this blog. But we won't badge.

Honduran de Facto Government Shuts down pro-Zelaya Media

A man in Tegucigalpa, Honduras' capital, protesting the
de facto government's media censorship (EPA photo)

Honduras' de facto government shut down a TV and a radio stations supportive of deposed President Manuel Zelaya as yet another show of censorship on pro-Zelaya media on the day the defiant leader called for a march on the country's capital to depose the rebel government.

Zelaya, who was ousted in a June 28 coup after aligning himself with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, has secretly returned to Honduras and taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy.

Dozens of soldiers and policemen have since surrounded the embassy, and the rebel government has demanded that Zelaya left the country.

Reuters:

The raids on Radio Globo and the Cholusat Sur television station — both critical of the de facto government headed by Roberto Micheletti — came early on Monday and followed a decree allowing suspension of some civil rights and media.

Both stations have been taken off the air several times since the June 28 coup that toppled Zelaya, a logging magnate who irked the opposition and business groups by allying himself with Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez.

Police and troops cordoned off the building and the offices of Cholusat Sur, which has been off the air since late Sunday.

Guatemala complained that two Guatemalan journalists were "verbally and physically" assaulted by police during the raid on Radio Globo. It gave no more details.

The Committee to Protect Journalists shot a stern warning to the rebel government of interim President Roberto Micheletti saying it "must immediately allow two private broadcasters loyal to ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to the air."

Honduran citizens have the right to be fully informed about what’s going on in the country at this very sensitive moment,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ Americas senior program coordinator. “We urge the interim government to withdraw restrictions on the media, immediately reopen the suspended broadcasters, and respect journalists’ right to report the news freely.

When you start shutting down media outlets that don't agree with your view of the world, then chances are excellent your view of the world is starting to crumble.

Mexico, the Wild West of Press Freedom

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) put out yet another protest letter denouncing the killing of yet another Mexican journalist.

In this wild west of press freedom called the Mexican border with the US, we all in the press freedom movement must tip our hats to the mind-boggling courage of those Mexican journalists who, under impossible conditions to exercise their duty to keep the public informed, defy men with guns and with no morals.

Here is the whole CPJ letter denouncing the murder of Norberto Miranda Madrid, who was killed on Wednesday, in the offices of Radio Visión, in Nuevo Casas Grandes, Northern Chihuahua:

New York, September 25, 2009—Mexico must put an end to the pattern of impunity in journalists’ murders by prosecuting all those responsible for Wednesday’s brutal killing of Norberto Miranda Madrid, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Miranda, a harsh critic of local crime, was shot to death in his office in Nuevo Casas Grandes in northern Chihuahua State, according to local authorities.

Around 11 p.m., two unidentified men wearing ski masks burst into the offices of local Radio Visión, where Miranda and his brother José were working, local reporters told CPJ. The assailants shot Miranda repeatedly in the back of the neck, a spokesperson at the Chihuahua state prosecutor’s office, Julio César Castañeda, told CPJ. News reports said he died at the scene. The journalist’s brother was unharmed.

Miranda, 44, known as “El Gallito” (The Tough Guy), wrote the Web column “Cotorreando con el Gallito” and was a host on local Radio Visión. A reporter with 15 years of experience, Miranda was known locally for his straightforward approach to social issues, according the national daily El Universal. In his most recent columns, he criticized the lack of safety in Nuevo Casas Grandes and its surrounding areas. His last column, posted on Tuesday, detailed what he said was a string of 25 execution-style murders in the area this month. The journalist pointed to organized crime groups as the executioners.

Authorities told local reporters they are reviewing Miranda’s recent columns to find a possible motive.

“Norberto Miranda Madrid is the fifth journalists to be slain in Mexico in 2009, continuing a disturbingly murderous trend that has made Mexico one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist,” said Carlos Lauría, CPJ’s senior program coordinator for the Americas. “Mexican authorities must bring and end to impunity in journalists’ slayings by bringing Miranda’s murderers to justice.”

According to CPJ's annual survey, Attacks on the Press, 29 journalists have been killed, including Miranda, and at least 10 in direct reprisal for their work since 2000. Seven journalists have disappeared since 2005. Most covered organized crime or government corruption.

On May 25, unidentified assailants abducted crime reporter Eliseo Barrón Hernández from his home in Torreón in the state of Durango. His body was found the next day in an irrigation ditch. In June, the federal prosecutor’s office said one of five men detained by the Mexican army had confessed to Barrón’s murder and implicated the others. The alleged attacker, who officials say claimed to work for the Gulf cartel’s enforcement arm Los Zetas, allegedly told interrogators that Barrón had been killed in order to teach other journalists not to report on Los Zetas.

Three other journalists were killed in 2008. On January 12, photographer Jean Paul Ibarra Ramírez was shot to death in the town of Iguala in Guerrero. On May 3, reporter Carlos Ortega Samper was pulled out of his pickup truck in and shot dead in the mountains of Durango. On July 28, authorities found the body of Acapulco radio anchorman Juan Daniel Martínez Gil beaten and suffocated. CPJ continues to investigate these murders and whether they are connected to the three men’s work as journalists.

In 2008, the Chihuahua journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto took his 15-year-old son and fled his home in Ascensión, near Nuevo Casas Grandes, to the United States claiming he feared for his life. Gutiérrez, a correspondent for the El Diario del Noroeste of Nuevo Casas Grandes, said he had received threats from military personnel for his articles about alleged human rights abuses. He is currently awaiting political asylum in the United States.

China Declares Tibet off Limits to Foreigners again

Students at a military academy form the words
"National Day - 60" in northern China (EPA photo)

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the foundation of Communist China, the Beijing government has decided to declare Tibet off limits to foreigners.

This is the third time this happens since March of 2008, when the pro-independence riots exploded in that part of southern China.

It's also fresh evidence of how paranoid the central government has become of the 60th anniversary of National Day, the national holiday that commemorates the victory of Mao Zedong's Communist forces in the country's civil war.
 
The New York Times quotes tour operators as saying the ban was established on Sunday, Sept. 20, and that it will remain in effect for three weeks until Oct. 8.

Tour operators said that foreigners already holding permits would be allowed to travel to Tibet, but with restrictions, including requirements that they travel only with guides and stay in government-approved hotels. Tour operators said they were told that the ban on new permits would remain until at least Oct. 8.

Yong Hong, deputy sales manager at Xigaze China International Travel Service in Lhasa, said the new rules were unexpected and not particularly welcome. “It was a sudden thing, but this year is unusual,” he said, referring to the Oct. 1 National Day celebrations marking the founding of the People’s Republic.

If China has nothing to hide in Tibet, National Day should be a festive occasion to share with everyone everywhere in the country, shouldn't it?

Bulgarian Wins Race for Director General of UNESCO

(Reported from Paris by WPFC's European Representative Rony Koven)

Irina Bokova at a presser after her victory in Paris today (EPA photo)

The Bulgarian ambassador to UNESCO, Irina Bokova, won the race to become UNESCO's Director General. She defeated Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny 31-27 in a vote of the Organization's Executive Board.

It was the fifth and final round of voting possible by the 58-member Board. The top two out of an original nine candidates had tied 29-29 on Monday. It was unclear what countries switched their votes today in the heavily contested election.

The Egyptian ambassador indicated no hard feelings would be expressed officially. When the vote was announced in the Council, he advanced to Bokova, hugged her, and said, "We're in this together." She replied by raising his arm and repeating, "We're in this together."

The vote was for a recommendation to UNESCO's full membership, meeting in its 193-nation General Conference next month. It has always followed the recommendations of its Executive Board on the choice of a Director General.

Bokova made a brief statement to the unprecedentedly large number of journalists —up to 300— waiting for the result. Speaking in French and English, she said she would take all the best ideas of the nine candidates who ran for the post. She spoke warmly of her Egyptian rival.

In the first round of voting last Tursday, she had gotten 8 votes, to Hosny's 22.

Bokova, 57, is described by those who know her as the product of her country's "Communist aristocracy." She has held high positions, including foreign minister briefly. But she has always been prudent and avoided controversies.

Board members who took part in the interviews of all the candidates said Bokova had come across as competent, articulate, very well-organized, and very aware of the details of UNESCO programs.

Much relief was expressed in the halls at UNESCO by those who were anxious over Hosny's controversial record for censorship and against Israel, not to mention the growing number of recollections of his cooperation with Egypt's secret services.

CPJ Denounces Cyber-Censorship Prior to China's National Day

The Chinese government should stop censoring Web sites and protect Internet users from cyber attacks in advance of upcoming National Day celebrations, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said today.

October 1, also known as National Day, marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Internet users have reported that several social networking sites, including forums and micro-blogging sites, have been shut down in recent weeks. Freegate software used to circumvent online censorship was apparently being blocked from September 1, according to Radio Free Asia. Government-backed Internet café associations in several major Chinese cities earlier this month announced new measures to “clean up the industry” in line with existing national Internet laws, international news reports said. “The recent controls are probably the most severe ever,” Internet commentator Zhou Shuguang told RFA.

Foreign news outlets based in China reported receiving a string of e-mails disguised as internal correspondence but carrying malware in attachments, according to news reports. The origin and purpose of the malware—which, once installed on a computer can be used remotely to observe, copy, or destroy data—is not known.

Foreign news outlets are frequently perceived as anti-government in China, though no link between official information authorities and the malware attacks has been reported. A similar anonymous attack came in the months before the August 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, targeting human rights and media freedom groups like CPJ.

Patriotic, pro-government events are politically sensitive in China as officials frequently attempt to stifle dissent.

 “Signs of escalating media control at this politically sensitive moment in China are not surprising, but they are disappointing,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program coordinator. “The legacy of last year’s Beijing Olympics was not more media freedom, only the rise of an even more sophisticated Internet security apparatus.”

Chinese news assistants working for foreign media outlets in Beijing and Shanghai received duplicate e-mails on Monday purporting to be from a colleague arriving from overseas, according to international news reports. The e-mails carried malware in attachments, the reports said. Reuters said an employee received an otherwise credible message from a fictional economics editor named Pam Bouron.

The Straits Times, Dow Jones, Agence France-Presse, and the Italian ANSA news agency received versions of the same e-mail tailored to internal e-mail specifications, also from Pam Bouron, Reuters reported. Foreign journalists reported receiving more suspicious messages on Tuesday, news reports said.

International and online media fill gaps left by local outlets restricted to patriotic topics during sensitive periods for fear of political reprisal. “Signs point so far to extremely tight press controls around the [National Day] event,” analysts Qian Gang and David Bandurski wrote on Hong Kong University’s China Media Project Web site on September 17. “Media in China will likely be less capable of pushing the envelope this year than they were even during the last major anniversary ten years ago,” they wrote.

IPI Urges China to Protect Journalists from Assaults

A reporter, a cameraman and an assistant working for Japan’s Kyodo News Agency in Beijing were on Friday, Sept. 18, assaulted by Chinese authorities who stormed their hotel room around 8 p.m., Kyodo News have reported.
 
Kyodo News alleged that the authorities kicked the three media professionals and hit them on the head to make them kneel down. They also threw two computers out of the room into the corridor, destroying them, the agency said.
 
The journalists were staying at Beijing Hotel on Chang’an Avenue, next to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, to cover a rehearsal for the 1 October National Day Parade.
 
This year the military parade will mark 60 years of Communist rule in China.
 
Kyodo News Agency told the International Press Institute (IPI) by phone that the journalists were not badly injured in the attack and that the reason for the assault remained unclear.
 
“A spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the journalists violated the regulations,“ a representative of Kyodo News’ Beijing office told IPI. “However it was not specified which regulations. We have issued a complaint to the authorities.“
 
The Kyodo News representative added that for the moment the agency preferred to withhold the names of the media professionals involved.
 
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China said in a press release on its Website that more than a dozen of its members had reported receiving phone calls in recent weeks warning them not to photograph or interview people in or around Tiananmen Square in the run-up to the anniversary. However, no written regulations in this regard had been issued by the Foreign Ministry.
 
“The brutal manner in which these journalists were treated reinforces the fact that no matter how successful the economy, the Chinese government retains a deep-seated fear of the media’s democratic right to report free of harassment and intimidation,” said IPI Director David Dadge. “We urge the Chinese authorities to investigate the alleged assault and to bring any perpetrators to justice.”
 
On Tuesday, Kyodo News Agency reported that China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, speaking to reporters at a regular press briefing, “said the ministry had communicated the concerns of Kyodo News to ‘relevant sides’ in Beijing and could not yet draw any conclusions on the matter.”

We Are Merging!

A message from Richard N. Winfield, Chairman of World Press Freedom Committee:

Dear Friends:

We're merging! World Press Freedom Committee recently reached an agreement in principle to merge with Freedom House, a prestigious non-partisan, non-governmental organization.

Although we recently closed our Reston, Virginia, office, all of our operations, including our website and this blog, will continue as before. Please contact Javier Sierra (jsierra@wpfc.org) if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Richard N. Winfield
Chairman, WPFC

Shoe-Throwing Journalist Hurls Torture Accusations after His Prison Release

Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi today came out swinging with grave accusations of having been tortured during his nine months in prison.

Al-Zaidi, who threw both his shoes to former US President George Bush and called him "dog" during a December press conference in Baghdad, was released today and shortly afterward accused his captors of subjecting him to water boarding, electrocution, beatings and other forms of torture.

He also promised to reveal the names of the government officials and army officers who ordered his torture.

Muntazer al-Zaidi at a presser after being
released  from a Baghdad prison. (EPA photo)

The journalist was initially sentenced to three years in prison after found guilty of attacking and insulting a foreign leader. The sentence was eventually reduced to nine months because of good behavior.

Al Zaidi also was defiant in his denunciations of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, who stood right next to former President Bush during the shoe-throwing incident. Al Zaidi demanded an apology from al-Maliki, who had categorically denied earlier this year that the journalist was being tortured in prison.

The Times of London:

He said that Mr al-Maliki’s public assurances that he was being cared for in prison coincided with him being “left until morning handcuffed in a place that didn’t protect me from the pinching cold of the winter, after they drowned me with water.

“I demand from him to apologise for covering up and keeping the truth from people,” Mr al-Zaidi said.

(...)

Despite his defiance and smart appearance, Mr al-Zaidi appeared physically weak and sometimes required help. While his friends celebrated his release and his family embraced him, his brother held his hand for support. Mr al-Zaidi shook as though he were braving a sudden chill.

Al-Zaidi, who is considered a popular hero throughout the Middle East, is to travel to Greece for medical checkups amid concerns that his captivity and the ill treatment received would have long-term consequences.

More Americans Think Their Media Aren't to Be Trusted

A new study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press is giving disturbing food for thought to the US media.

The survey found that in a little more than two decades, the number of US news consumers who think the media are biased or inaccurate has almost doubled.

The Pew study sheds some light as to why news consumers are rearranging their priorities during a period when newspaper circulation is nosediving and traditional broadcast news outlets are seeing their audiences diminish at alarming rates.

The survey found that 63 percent of those asked believe the news they consume is often inaccurate. Back in 1985, only 34 percent thought that way. Also, 74 percent believe news is biased one way or another to favor one side of the issue.

Those trends tend to go hand in hand, said Andrew Kohut, the Pew center's director.

"If people believe that news reports are often biased, they will say they're inaccurate," he said.

The findings indicate U.S. newspapers and broadcasters could be alienating the audiences they are struggling to keep as they try to survive financial turmoil. Pew Research's questionnaire didn't attempt to gauge how shrinking newspapers and other cutbacks at news organizations are affecting people's perceptions, though the reductions probably haven't helped, said Michael Dimock, an associate director for the center.

The financial problems mainly stem from a steep decline in the ad sales that generate most of the media's revenue. Newspapers' print editions have been losing readers to the Internet, and broadcasters' audiences are fragmenting in an age of cable TV and satellite radio.

As tragic as these findings are, in the case of newspapers —the ones hit hardest by the US media decline— there is another factor that makes the situation even more alarming: US adult illiteracy is mind-boggling.

According to the US National Adult Literacy Survey, "a total of 21-23 percent —or 40-44 million— of the 191 million American adults (defined as age 16 or older) are at Level 1, the lowest literacy level."

This is bone-chilling, folks. Up to 23 percent of the population of the richest, most powerful country on earth won't pick up a newspaper because they could understand almost nothing but the pictures.