Tunisian Journalist Imprisoned on Trumped-up Charges

Our friends at IFEX's Tunisia Monitor Group inform us that a court in Tunisia has charged dissident journalist Taoufik Ben Brik with outrageous crimes and put him in prison.

The group reports that the trumped-up charges include "damaging other people's property,"  "violation of public morality standards,"  defamation and "extreme aggression."  The charges carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Ben Brik, one of the most vocal critics of the regime of President Ben Ali, will remain in custody until the day of his trial, Nov. 19.

A member of the group was able to talk to both Ben Brik's wife and attorney and both told him "this is part of a vengeful campaign to humiliate and punish Ben Ali's critics, in the wake of Sunday's mock elections."


(EPA photo)

The group added that on Saturday, "Ben Ali (above) threatened to take to court what he called a 'tiny minority' of Tunisians cooperating with foreign journalists to cast doubt on the results of the elections and tarnish the image of the country."

The group also reported that another dissident journalist, Lofti Hidouri, "remains under tight police surveillance and received phone threats from the two plain clothes police standing near his home in Al Mourouj, in the Southern suburbs of Tunis."

The imprisonment has unleashed a storm of international criticism, including groups such as Amnesty International, the World Association of Newspapers and Reporters without Borders.

And now the World Press Freedom Committee.

ICANN Opens the Gates to These: 字한漢بر ض

In a historic decision, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the use of non-Latin characters from start to finish.

ICANN will launch its new International Domain Fast Track Process on Nov. 16, allowing countries and territories from throughout the world to use their own characters to Internet extensions.

"The coming introduction of non-Latin characters represents the biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago," said ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush. "Right now Internet address endings are limited to Latin characters – A to Z. But the Fast Track Process is the first step in bringing the 100,000 characters of the languages of the world online for domain names."

The decision follows years of discussions, technical testing and international cooperation.

"This is only the first step, but it is an incredibly big one and an historic move toward the internationalization of the Internet ," said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN's President and CEO. "The first countries that participate will not only be providing valuable information of the operation of IDNs in the domain name system, they are also going to help to bring the first of billions more people online – people who never use Roman characters in their daily lives."

More information about this historic development here.

WPFC Urges Argentine Senate to Pass Crucial Bill

The World Press Freedom Committee yesterday sent a letter to the President of the Argentine Senate urging him to promptly pass a bill that would decriminalize defamation offenses pertaining to matters of public interest.

The bill does not move these offenses from the Criminal Code to the Civil Code, but at least it keeps criminal defamation out of the way of journalists seeking the truth and keeping public officials accountable before the rest of society.

The letter also congratulates the House of Deputies for having passed the bill the day before.

WPFC has been involved in this reform since 2001, when we first started supporting, both morally and financially, journalist Eduardo Kímel, whose case reached all the way to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The tribunal ruled for Kímel in May of 2008 and ordered the Argentine State to reform its defamation laws.

This is the full letter sent to Senate President Julio César Cleto Cobos:

US Comes out Strong against Defamation of Religion Movement

Secretary Clinton at the presser where she released the
Freedom of Religion Report (EPA Photo)

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a decisive push to press freedom around the world by openly denouncing the defamation of religion movement.

The movement, fundamentally supported by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, has gained strong momentum in recent times at international bodies, especially at the UN General Assembly, its Human Rights Council and its Conference against Racism.

Clinton, during the release of the State Department's annual Report on International Freedom of Religion, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "Some claim that the best way to protect the freedom of religion is to implement so-called anti-defamation policies that would restrict freedom of expression and the freedom of religion. I strongly disagree."

The international opposition to this very dangerous movement was able to garner some momentum (here and here), but the Obama administration's decisive pronouncement against it changes the dynamics of the game in a fundamental way.

The AP via The Washington Post:

"The protection of speech about religion is particularly important since persons of different faith will inevitably hold divergent views on religious questions," Clinton said. "These differences should be met with tolerance, not with the suppression of discourse."

(...)

The effort is widely seen as a reaction to perceived anti-Islamic incidents, including the publication in Europe of several cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Michael Posner, the assistant U.S. secretary of state for human rights, democracy and labor whose office prepares the religious freedom report, said the resolution "goes too far."

"The notion that a religion can be defamed and that any comments that are negative about that religion can constitute a violation of human rights to us violates the core principle of free speech," he said.

Posner went out to clearly state that a resolution about the defamation of religion "is a violation of free speech."

For many months we have been expressing our stern opposition to a resolution that would allow states to repress, and not protect, freedom of religion not only in their countries but anywhere in the world.

We believe this movement would establish the globalization of blasphemy laws, the Biblical and Koranic precursors of today's infamous insult laws.

In fact, an international resolution on defamation of religions would give the clergy not only the power to criminalize any expressions or activities that they deem insulting to their faith but also to deny any individual the right not to believe in any religion or to convert to any another faith.

We congratulate the Obama administration on this show of courage, which so far is the most decisive to oppose a very toxic international movement.

US Papers Circulation Continues Nosediving; but Revenue Report Upbeat

The circulation recession among US newspapers continues unabated during the six months ending in September 2009, with some major publications taking devastating double-digit red numbers, especially The San Francisco Chronicle and the Miami Herald.

On the other hand, circulation revenues —boosted up by some drastic marketing decisions— provide an optimistic hue to yet another depressing report.

Trade publication Editor & Publisher reports that according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the average US newspaper took one of the worst hits in recorded history, with a 10.6-percent industry-wide decline.

The news proved to be particularly devastating for The San Francisco Chronicle, which lost more than a quarter (25.8 percent) of its daily circulation, and more than 22 percent of its Sunday circulation.

Another big loser was the Miami Herald, with a daily decline of 23 percent and a Sunday drop of 14.6 percent.

(EPA photo)

USA Today ceased to be the country's top circulation paper, taking an overall hit of 17 percent. Now the best national seller is the Wall Street Journal (above), which, remarkably, experienced a .6 percent circulation increase to slightly more than 2 million daily copies.

Details on the casualty report:

—The New York Times: -7.2 percent daily; -2.6 percent Sunday.
—The Los Angeles Times: -11 percent daily; -6.7 percent Sunday.
—The Washington Post: -6.4 percent daily; -5 percent Sunday.

E&P does explain the silver lining in this very dark storm cloud that has been hovering over the US newspaper industry for decades, especially over the last two years.

There are several reasons as to why circulation keeps dropping, aside from former readers who have kicked the print edition to the curb. Publishers have been purposely pulling back on certain types of circulation, including hotel, employee and third-party sponsored copies. No longer are they distributing newspapers to the outer reaches of the core market. The cost of delivery and the cost of materials have forced publishers to scale back.

Another shift has occurred: volume has taken a back seat to dollars.

Several major newspapers across the country have aggressively hiked prices of single-copy and home-delivered papers in search of circulation revenue and a renewed focus on loyal readers. Circulation is guaranteed to go down as prices go up, but publishers have opted to wring more revenue from readers as advertisers keep their coffers closed.

Several newspaper companies reported their circulation revenue is on the rise. In Q3, circulation revenue grew 6.7% at McClatchy, 11% at Media General, and 6.7% at The New York Times Co.

All the news that's fit to print does not seem enough for an industry that used to set the world standard.

Morocco Blocks Distribution of Le Monde because of Cartoon

The cartoon, which drew an stern response from Rabat, underlines the case in Morocco of cartoonist Khalid Gueddar, whose trial for "lacking respect of the royal family" started 10 days ago in the city of Ain Sebaa, close to Casablanca.

 
The Le Monde cartoon (above), by artist Plantu, features a hand coming out of the Moroccan flag and drawing the figure of what looks like a crowned clown with the following legend: "Trial in Morocco against the caricaturist Khalid Gueddar who dares to draw the Moroccan royal family."

Gueddar's is the third trial against journalists in Morocco in one month, in what press freedom forces there call an unprecedented crackdown on press freedom.

The cartoon that could cost Gueddar dearly (above) deals with the wedding of a cousin of King Mohammed VI to a German woman.

Taoufik Bouachrine, the publisher of Akhbar al Youm, the paper that employs Gueddar, was also indicted for insulting the royal family. His paper has since been shut down by order of the Interior Ministry.

Reuters quoted Bouachrine as saying the indictments are part of "an ongoing massacre of press freedom" in Morocco.

A senior Moroccan official who chose to remain unnamed justified the banning of Thursday's and Friday's editions of Le Monde by saying, "We will never accept, on grounds of freedom of expression, a systematic attack on national symbols."

Two other journalists from the Al Michaal magazine are awaiting sentence after being tried for publishing allegedly false information about the health of king Mohammed. And the editor and a reporter of the daily Al Jarida al Oula are also on trial because of the same allegations.

Insult laws, created by the Roman Empire to shield the emperor from the criticism of the people, still constitute, 21 centuries later, some of the most effective tools to silence the media.

They also are the hallmark of paranoid regimes, terrified that a free press would keep the public informed.

Europe, US, Israel Star in RSF's Press Freedom Index, for Better or Worse

Reporters without Borders (RSF) today issued its 2009 Press Freedom Index expressing deep concerns about the regression in several Western European countries, noticing the advance of the US and lamenting Israel's nosedive in the ranking.

RSF attributes the US advance, 16 positions, from 36th to 20th, to the "Obama effect," saying one important reason is "the fact that he has a less hawkish approach than his predecessor."

But the comments to the report wonder whether Europe, which still placed 13 of its countries on top of the list, is no longer the standard for the rest of the world, focusing on the dismal performances of Italy (49th, falling five positions), Slovakia (44th, falling 37) and France (43rd, falling eight).

Europe long set an example in press freedom but several European nations have fallen significantly in this year’s index (...) In so doing, they have given way to young democracies in Africa (Mali, South Africa and Ghana) and the western hemisphere (Uruguay and Trinidad and Tobago).

Journalists are still physically threatened in Italy and Spain (44th), but also in the Balkans, especially Croatia (78th), where the owner and marketing director of the weekly Nacional were killed by a bomb on 23 October 2008.

But the main threat, a more serious one in the long term, comes from new legislation. Many laws adopted since September 2008 have compromised the work of journalists. One adopted by Slovakia (44th) has introduced the dangerous concept of an automatic right of response and has given the culture minister considerable influence over publications.

Another big loser in this year's list was Israel, which fell 47 slots to 93rd overall.

This nose-dive means it has lost its place at the head of the Middle Eastern countries, falling behind Kuwait (60th), United Arab Emirates (86th) and Lebanon (61st).

Israel has begun to use the same methods internally as it does outside its own territory. Reporters Without Borders registered five arrests of journalists, some of them completely illegal, and three cases of imprisonment. The military censorship applied to all the media is also posing a threat to journalists.

As regards its extraterritorial actions, Israel was ranked 150th. The toll of the war was very heavy. Around 20 journalists in the Gaza Strip were injured by the Israeli military forces and three were killed while covering the offensive.

Bringing up the rear we find the usual suspects —Eritrea, North Korea and Turkmenistan— in close competition with Iran, which is "at the gates of the infernal trio."

RSF indicts the Tehran regime for its brutal repression of the pro-democracy demonstrations, "which plunged the country into a major crisis and fostered regime paranoia about journalists and bloggers."

Automatic prior censorship, state surveillance of journalists, mistreatment, journalists forced to flee the country, illegal arrests and imprisonment – such is the state of press freedom this year in Iran.

Already at the lower end of the rankings in previous years, Iran has now reached the gates of the infernal trio at the very bottom – Turkmenistan (173rd), North Korea (174th) and Eritrea (175th) – where the media are so suppressed they are non-existent.

On the bright side, special mention goes to Ireland, which jumped up to the first position, sharing it with the traditional stalwarts of international press freedom, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Journalist's Preventive Detention Upheld by Venezuelan Court

A court in the Venezuelan state of Táchira upheld (available only in Spanish) a lower court's decision to keep journalist Gustavo Azócar (below) in preventive detention because of fraud and swindle charges.

(Photo by megaresistencia.com)

Azócar, who calls himself "the first journalist imprisoned by the Hugo Chávez Revolution," was imprisoned after a years-long criminal process for fraud and swindle charges related to the purchase of ads for his TV station. The charges have been repeatedly found baseless.

Azócar, a correspondent for the national daily El Universal in the Western city of San Cristóbal, insists the charges and his imprisonment are nothing but retribution for his criticism of the Chávez administration.

Venezuela's journalists union has demanded his immediate release and called his case a "perverse judicial situation." 

China Sentences Dissident Guo Quan to 10 years in Prison

Pro-democracy dissident and Internet writer Gou Quan (below), whose defiance of the Communist Party has cost him years of harassment and censorship, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and three years of deprivation of political rights for "subversion of state power."

(Epoch Times Photo)

Guo Quan, a former Nanjing Normal University associate professor, had become a thorn in the side of the Beijing bosses by sending letters to top officials advocating for a multi-party democracy system and by forming the independent Chinese New Democracy Party, which Guo Quan claims has a membership of 30 million.

In May of 2008, he was arrested because of his critical writings about the government's response to the May 12, 2008, earthquake in Sichuan Province. The PEN American Center called the arrest back then part of "a pattern of intensified harassment of dissident writers in China."

In November, he was arrested again on the above-mentioned charges of "subversion of state power," a case that was finally filed on June 20 and whose trial took place on Aug. 7.

According to Human Rights in China (HRIC), "In issuing a decision more than four months after it accepted the case, the court greatly exceeded the one-and-a-half month legal time limit for a court to conclude a case (Article 168, Criminal Procedure Law)."

HRIC also quotes Guo Quan's attorney as saying the whole procedure was illegal. "This sentence is indefensible from a legal perspective, because using peaceful and rational means to petition cannot be considered ‘subversion of state power.’ Guo Quan’s actions were in complete compliance with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech. ‘Subversion of state power’ can only be achieved by armed insurrection."

Maybe the judges read the old adage, "The pen is mightier than the sword." You never know.

'War on Words' and How Democratic Nations Deal with Hate Speech

The International Press Institute and the Center for International Legal Studies recently held a conference in Vienna, Austria, about hate speech, one of the most controversial subjects confronting the international press freedom movement.

With the title "War on Words: Terrorism, Media and the Law," the conference attracted more than 150 journalists, human rights lawyers and advocates, and counter-terrorism experts from throughout the world.

Richard N. Winfield (above), WPFC's Chairman and one of the most prestigious media lawyers in the US, addressed the conference on this subject. Mr. Winfield dealt with the "kind of sociopathic expression that causes anger, hurt or resentment," and used examples from three countries, Denmark, Hungary and the United States, to illustrate his presentation.

Following are his complete remarks: