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World Media Watch
by Gloria R. Lalumia
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.
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1//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey--IRAQ-KUWAIT SHOUTING MATCH ERUPTS AT OIC SUMMIT (Iraq's second in command shouted, "Shut up, you monkey!" at a member of the Kuwaiti delegation who interrupted his scathing speech on Wednesday to an emergency summit of Islamic nations that had been called to seek a unified approach to averting a U.S.-led war in Iraq. The emergency Islamic summit ended in Qatar later on Wednesday with no mention of the Iraqi crisis in the final communique. The statement read at the end of the extraordinary summit of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) focused instead on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- the only issue the participants appeared to agree on.)
2//The News International, Pakistan--CIA CHIEF'S SECRET VISIT TO PAKISTAN (The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet paid a secret visit to Pakistan a few days ago to personally thank the Pakistan government for the capture of alleged al-Qaeda military planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammad...Soon afterwards, President Musharraf remarked that he shouldn't have disclosed the information about the secret visit of the CIA director to Pakistan...Beside the CIA boss, American media teams are also rushing to Pakistan in anticipation of more al-Qaeda arrests in the wake of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad's capture. In particular, there is a growing feeling in the US that information gleaned from the captured al-Qaeda men could provide clues to bin Laden's whereabouts.)
3//Ha'aretz, Israel--ARAFAT ASKS PLO OFFICIAL ABU MAZEN TO BE PALESTINIAN PM (Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has asked senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to be the PA prime minister, the PA parliament speaker said Thursday. But Abbas said he was still waiting to hear if he would be granted significant power as prime minister before deciding whether to accept the post...Abu Mazen was a co-founder of the mainstream PLO Fatah faction which Arafat heads and was a central figure in peace negotiations with Israel which climaxed with the signing of the 1993 Oslo peace accords.)
4//Frankfurter Allgemeine, Germany--RECORD JOBLESS ROLLS SHOCK (Unexpectedly high unemployment figures for February have prompted calls for immediate action to propel the economy and stimulate job creation...Enacting far-reaching labor-market changes will, however, not go over well with the SPD's left wing, which has long accused the chancellor of kowtowing to the interests of big business while increasing the tax burden on ordinary workers.)
5//The Economist, UK--FADING (When young Britons do read newspapers, they tend to like the ones without much news. Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers and publisher of titles ranging from Women on Top to the Daily Star, has reinvented this end of the market. Of the three daily tabloids that bucked the circulation decline in the second half of 2002, two (the Express and the Star) were his; the other was the Sun. Circulation at the Star-typical headline: "Kylie's bum is so yum"-shot up 17%...But as too many papers chase fewer and fewer readers something will have to give. Simon Mays-Smith, a media analyst at J.P. Morgan, says: "Nearly a dozen newspapers in the UK, given the decline in circulation, just isn't sustainable.")
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1//The
Turkish Daily News 6 March 2003
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for2.htm#f26
IRAQ-KUWAIT SHOUTING MATCH ERUPTS AT OIC SUMMIT
Closing OIC statement fails to even mention the Iraq crisis, underscoring
divisions in the way of any war-stopping initiative by Muslim groupings
and sidestepping an Iraqi appeal for solidarity
Salah Nasrawi
Iraq's second in command shouted, "Shut up, you monkey!" at a member of the Kuwaiti delegation who interrupted his scathing speech on Wednesday to an emergency summit of Islamic nations that had been called to seek a unified approach to averting a U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The emergency Islamic summit ended in Qatar later on Wednesday with no mention of the Iraqi crisis in the final communique. The statement read at the end of the extraordinary summit of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) focused instead on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict -- the only issue the participants appeared to agree on.
The summit -- called by Qatar despite warnings that it might only expose divisions -- was meant to unite the world's one billion Muslims against a U.S.-led war on Iraq.
Shouting match
Sheik Mohammed Sabah Al Salem Al Sabah, the Kuwaiti minister of state for foreign affairs, interrupted Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri's speech to the OIC with an inaudible remark. Al-Douri responded -- his remarks aired live by Arab satellite television stations -- with "Shut up you monkey. Curse be upon your mustache (honor), you traitor."
(SNIP)
Iraqi brief walkout
Iraqi delegates left the room briefly while the plenary session continued for some mediated attempts at calming tempers that brought the Iraqis back to the meeting hall within an hour.
Sheik Hamad then tried to shift the summit focus back to its lofty goal of unity, closing the session by saying: "We are eager to make this summit a success ... and the proof is that you are all here with the aim of sparing the region any action that will destabilize the security and peace."
Wednesday's summit was the third high-level gathering in the region in a week aimed at staving off war -- and the second to degenerate into exchanges of insults. Arab and Islamic nations are divided on whether that is possible if Saddam stays in power, and the summit comes as calls for the Iraqi president to consider a life in exile have grown stronger.
(MORE)
2//The News International Friday March 07, 2003-- Muharram 03, 1424
A.H.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/mar2003-daily/07-03-2003/main/main12.htm
CIA CHIEF'S SECRET VISIT TO PAKISTAN
By Rahimullah Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet paid a secret visit to Pakistan a few days ago to personally thank the Pakistan government for the capture of alleged al-Qaeda military planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammad.
(SNIP)
After an interview with some Western reporters a couple of days ago, President Musharraf in his informal talk told them about Tenet's visit to Islamabad to thank Pakistan for capturing some of the top al-Qaeda members. According to one of the Western reporters, the president argued that Pakistan in general and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in particular were being unfairly criticised despite their crucial role in capturing wanted people and fighting terrorism.
Soon afterwards, President Musharraf remarked that he shouldn't have disclosed the information about the secret visit of the CIA director to Pakistan. It is possible that Tenet also met his Pakistani counterparts, including the ISI chief Lt-Gen Ehsanul Haq, during his stay in Islamabad.
(SNIP)
The CIA director's visit wasn't unexpected in view of the importance being attached to Khalid Shaikh Mohammad's arrest in the US. The US government, as well as the media in that country, is excited over the capture of a man referred to as Osama bin Laden's "007" and the lynchpin of al-Qaeda's military operations.
Beside the CIA boss, American media teams are also rushing to Pakistan in anticipation of more al-Qaeda arrests in the wake of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad's capture. In particular, there is a growing feeling in the US that information gleaned from the captured al-Qaeda men could provide clues to bin Laden's whereabouts.
3//Ha'aretz Friday, March 07, 2003 Adar2 3, 5763 Israel Time: 02:00
(GMT+2)
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/269979.html
ARAFAT ASKS PLO OFFICIAL ABU MAZEN TO BE PALESTINIAN PM
By Aluf Benn and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has asked senior Palestine Liberation Organization official Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to be the PA prime minister, the PA parliament speaker said Thursday.
But Abbas said he was still waiting to hear if he would be granted significant power as prime minister before deciding whether to accept the post.
"The position is not as important as the powers of the prime minister...I will respond positively or negatively after I know what powers the prime minister will have," Abbas told Reuters.
(SNIP)
Israel said Thursday that it will allow nearly all members of the Palestinian decision-making bodies to attend the sessions, despite a clamp-down in the territories following Wednesday's suicide bombing in Haifa.
Abu Mazen was a co-founder of the mainstream PLO Fatah faction which Arafat heads and was a central figure in peace negotiations with Israel which climaxed with the signing of the 1993 Oslo peace accords.
(SNIP)
Sources in Jerusalem said that the meeting be attended by the largest number of people to travel from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank since the freedom of movement for Palestinians was revoked.
The sources said that Israel issued the travel permits as it has a vested interest in the election of a Palestinian prime minister, and also wants to avoid any decision that would hinder the United States as it prepares to launch an attack on Iraq.
(MORE)
4//Frankfurter Allgemeine March 7, 2003
ARTICLE
LINK
RECORD JOBLESS ROLLS SHOCK
Chancellor vows to push ahead with reforms, ignore union and industry
lobbyists
By Elise Kissling
Unexpectedly high unemployment figures for February have prompted calls for immediate action to propel the economy and stimulate job creation.
The jobless rolls jumped to 4.7 million in January from just under 4.3 million last February and up 83,000 from last month, the Federal Statistics Office reported on Thursday. The February figures, the third-highest level since World War II and the highest since unification, caught bank economists off guard.
(SNIP)
Economists said the numbers are a clear indication that the economy will not grow by the 1 percent forecast by the government earlier in the year. "The labor market data increases pressure on the government to enact necessary reforms. That's probably the only positive thing about them," said Daniela Etschberger of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein.
Indeed, Labor and Economics Minister Wolfgang Clement said the government must respond to the dramatic rise in joblessness with concrete action. "It's time to stop talking and act," he said, referring to the years-long, fruitless roundtable talks between union, industry and government representatives. A week earlier, Clement had threatened to step down if there was no movement on the labor-market front.
Echoing the words of Chancellor Schröder earlier in the week, Clement said on Thursday that the imminent reforms "won't be a walk in the park."
After the unions pulled out of roundtable talks over the weekend, the chancellor said he would go ahead with "painful" reforms without the consent of union and industry associations.
"I'm not going to negotiate," he said.
Union leaders had refused to even discuss labor-market reforms that would rework Germany's strict laws on dismissal and give employers greater freedom to form wage agreements outside of collective bargaining. Instead, they proposed a EUR15 billion spending package for cash-strapped municipalities to boost economic activity and create jobs.
(SNIP)
Enacting far-reaching labor-market changes will, however, not go over well with the SPD's left wing, which has long accused the chancellor of kowtowing to the interests of big business while increasing the tax burden on ordinary workers.
(SNIP)
5//The Economist Mar 6th 2003
http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1622217
FADING
From The Economist print edition
Things look pretty bad in the newspaper business. They are worse than that
THE British newspaper industry thinks rather highly of itself. It sustains 11 national titles, and unusually high readership levels. It has a culture of irreverence, from which it looks down at the tame and stodgy German papers, and now at Le Monde, France's leading high-brow newspaper, recently the target of accusations of political collusion. Yet British newspapers are in bad trouble-even worse than meets the eye.
At first glance, things look gloomy enough. Pearson, part owner of The Economist, reported this week that its flagship title, the Financial Times, lost money in the second half of 2002, and just scraped a £1m ($1.6m) full-year operating profit, 92% down on 2001. Operating profit at Rupert Murdoch's British papers, the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, fell 37% in the last quarter of 2002 compared with the same period of 2001. Circulation revenues at the Sun have been battered by its price war with the Mirror. Journalists are being fired; pay packets and expense accounts frozen; pension schemes slimmed.
One reason is the advertising slump. Following a bumper year in 2000, when advertising revenues across the British newspaper industry soared by 12%, they dropped by 2% in 2001 and a further 3% in 2002. Those figures disguise huge variation across the industry. While some businesses, such as fashion, are still advertising heavily, others, such as technology, telecoms and financial services, are not. Advertising revenues at the Financial Times fell by 23% in 2002, after a 20% decline in 2001.
Newspapers are losing readers too. In the second half of 2002, circulation fell from the same period of 2001 at all but three of the national titles, and at every one of the broadsheet newspapers. Even the Daily Mail, middle England's favourite, is now losing readers for the first time in ten years.
(SNIP)
Most troubling of all for the industry, young people are just not buying newspapers the way their parents did. The number of newspaper readers under the age of 24 has shrunk by over a third since 1990, while those over 65 has fallen by only 6% (see chart). The Daily Telegraph boasts the greyest newspaper readers, 29% of whom are now over the age of 65. But the share of older readers is growing faster at other papers, including the Independent, the Times and the Mirror.
(SNIP)
When young Britons do read newspapers, they tend to like the ones
without much news. Richard Desmond, the owner of Express Newspapers
and publisher of titles ranging from Women on Top to the Daily
Star, has reinvented this end of the market. Of the three daily
tabloids that bucked the circulation decline in the second half
of 2002, two (the Express and the Star) were his; the other was
the Sun. Circulation at the Star-typical headline: "Kylie's
bum is so yum"-shot up 17%.
To the dismay of his high-minded rivals, Mr Desmond has invented a new low-cost business model for the, er, bottom end of the tabloid market. News-gathering is costly, so his papers mostly dispense with it: he got rid of nearly a third of editorial staff in the six months after he bought the Express group. Instead, they rely heavily on celebrity "news", often jointly with OK!, a specialist weekly.
(SNIP)
But as too many papers chase fewer and fewer readers something will have to give. Simon Mays-Smith, a media analyst at J.P. Morgan, says: "Nearly a dozen newspapers in the UK, given the decline in circulation, just isn't sustainable."
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© 2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com
Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm
