 |
|||||
| December 8, 2003 |
|||||
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. * * * WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR DECEMBER 8, 2003 1//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey--TURKISH-US TIES PUT BACK ON TRACK (Turkey and the United States have agreed to boost their security cooperation and coordination in Iraq in signs of a breakthrough as the two allies try to patch up ties after a series of stumbles over Iraq. To consolidate the progress, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be heading to Washington probably in January for his first visit as premier, Turkish officials said...At the end of talks with top U.S. Treasury officials in Washington, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal secured assurances from the U.S. administration of a greater share for Turkish companies from multi-billion restructuring tenders in Iraq.) 2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--BAGHDAD MOTORISTS BLAME BLACK MARKET FOR GIANT GASOLINE QUEUES (Long queues at gas stations, and roadside black- marketers with jerry cans, are one of the most obvious signs that life is a long way from normal in this country eight months after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. "I usually come here but this is the longest the queue has been," said Rashid, 24, a student. "Since Eid it's been getting worse," said Amar Hamoudy, 31, a taxi driver waiting in the middle of the bridge with an oil refinery in the distance behind him.) 3//The Moscow Times, Russia--LDPR, HOMELAND ALSO BIG WINNERS (The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and the Homeland bloc appeared to be among the winners of Sunday's election, showing the broad appeal of both parties' nationalist and anti-oligarch rhetoric among impoverished and disillusioned voters...The strong showing for LDPR and Homeland stems from their success in wresting away a chunk of the protest vote from the Communist Party and from Yabloko, which also has traditionally railed against oligarchic capitalism, said Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Politika think tank...The Communists were hurt by the amount of mud slung at the party during the campaign, said Nikonov and Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. The Communist Party was attacked by pro-Kremlin parties, and the coverage it received on state-controlled television was largely negative. The Kremlin either set up or helped promote a number of parties, including Homeland, in an effort to steal votes from the Communist Party or discredit it in the eyes of its traditional electorate.) 4//The Independent, UK--BRITAIN HEADS FOR HOTTEST YEAR SINCE 1659 (Professor Phil Jones, co-director of the CRU, said this could not be accounted for by natural climate variability, and can be attributed to global warming caused by human actions. It is unusual for a leading scientist to make the link so directly. "The temperatures recorded in Europe this year were out of all proportion to the previous record," he said.) 5//Inter Press Service, Italy--ATTEMPTS AT WEAKENING MEDIA A NEW BATTLE FOR JOURNALISTS (- For most Thai journalists, attempts to control the media in the past two years under the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are a new battlefront they have never experienced before. The recent acquisition of 11 percent of shares in The Nation Multimedia Group, an independent media organisation, by family members of a cabinet minister has alerted many journalists to more subtle threats to media freedom, like issues of ownership.) * * * 1//The
Turkish Daily News 6 December 2003 TURKISH-US TIES PUT BACK ON TRACK ANKARA - Turkish Daily News To consolidate the progress, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be heading to Washington probably in January for his first visit as premier, Turkish officials said. "The visit, as the highest-level contact between the two countries, will be useful for expressing the political will to look for solutions to problems," Justice Minister Cemil Cicek told reporters in Washington. Cicek, who was on a trip to Washington to discuss anti-terror cooperation and joint security measures against crime, said an official invitation from the U.S. side was expected in coming days. "I am extremely satisfied with the impression I have
gotten here," Cicek said of his visit. Doors opened for share in lucrative Iraqi tenders At the end of talks with top U.S. Treasury officials in Washington, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal secured assurances from the U.S. administration of a greater share for Turkish companies from multi-billion restructuring tenders in Iraq. Turkey has been included in a list of countries that have privileged status for participation in restructuring tenders, a status mostly granted to countries that helped boosting U.S. forces, Ziyal told a press conference in Washington. "This list consists of coalition countries that provided
troops. We were included in that list as a unique country
that wanted to provide troops but could not do so," Ziyal
said. (MORE)
BAGHDAD MOTORISTS BLAME BLACK MARKET FOR GIANT GASOLINE QUEUES BAGHDAD (AFP) - Five hours after he lined up to buy gasoline for his ageing Chevrolet sedan Benjamin Poul finally reached the pumps in this country awash with oil. More than one kilometre behind him in a queue that stretched all the way over a bridge, Mukled Rashid was just beginning a wait which motorists say has become increasingly common over the past two weeks. Long queues at gas stations, and roadside black- marketers with jerry cans, are one of the most obvious signs that life is a long way from normal in this country eight months after the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. "I usually come here but this is the longest the queue has been," said Rashid, 24, a student. "Since Eid it's been getting worse," said Amar Hamoudy, 31, a taxi driver waiting in the middle of the bridge with an oil refinery in the distance behind him. The Eid Al Fitr holiday marking the end of the Holy Month of Ramadan fell at the end of November. Motorists blamed smugglers and black marketers for the problem in a country which is importing oil products despite having the world's second-largest oil reserves. "I think there is smuggling of oil to other provinces and outside Iraq," Rashid said. He said he met a smuggler who claimed to earn $170 for each trip - a little more than the monthly wage of some teachers here. (MORE)
LDPR, HOMELAND ALSO BIG WINNERS The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia and the Homeland bloc appeared to be among the winners of Sunday's election, showing the broad appeal of both parties' nationalist and anti-oligarch rhetoric among impoverished and disillusioned voters. LDPR, which has been in the State Duma for the past decade, looked set to greatly increase the size of its faction, while the new Homeland bloc was on course to cross the 5 percent threshold and win a share of the party-list vote in its first time on the ballot. The strong showing for LDPR and Homeland stems from their success in wresting away a chunk of the protest vote from the Communist Party and from Yabloko, which also has traditionally railed against oligarchic capitalism, said Vyacheslav Nikonov, head of the Politika think tank. The Communists were hurt by the amount of mud slung at the party during the campaign, said Nikonov and Nikolai Petrov, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. The Communist Party was attacked by pro-Kremlin parties, and the coverage it received on state-controlled television was largely negative. The Kremlin either set up or helped promote a number of parties, including Homeland, in an effort to steal votes from the Communist Party or discredit it in the eyes of its traditional electorate. Nikonov said Homeland was set up by the so-called Family clan, which comprises holdovers from former President Boris Yeltsin's administration. Homeland co-leader Sergei Glazyev, an economist, chose the immensely rich and unpopular oligarchs as the main targets of his campaign. He called for raising taxes on their oil companies and using the money to increase pensions and public sector wages. His co-leader Dmitry Rogozin, presidential envoy for Kaliningrad and outspoken hawk, also hit out at the oil barons, but he interspersed his anti-oligarch tirades with calls for a greater Russia and vows to protect the interests of ethnic Russians abroad. This hard-hitting rhetoric made Homeland so popular that the Kremlin started to become concerned that it would do too well in the elections and move beyond its control. Hence, regular coverage of Homeland on Channel One television came to an end more than a week before the vote. But even Rogozin's sharp-worded attacks on the oligarchs paled in comparison to Zhirinovsky's televised escapades. "And no big business. Don't put it in their hands because they will steal it all and take it all out. Medium-sized businesses, perhaps -- but under the control of the special services," Zhirinovsky said during debates on NTV's "Svoboda Slova" program on Friday evening. Unlike Homeland, LDPR is a veteran of the political scene.
Some allege the party was set up by the Kremlin as a manageable
opposition to the Soviet Communist Party.
BRITAIN HEADS FOR HOTTEST YEAR SINCE 1659 This year is likely to prove the hottest recorded in Britain, The Independent can reveal. It will also be memorable for continental Europe's hottest summer, which exceeded previous records by such an enormous amount that one of Britain's leading climate scientists is now prepared to attribute its extreme heat directly to global warming. Even though three weeks of temperatures have still to be registered, 2003 - already notable for Britain's hottest day on 10 August, when the thermometer registered 38.5C (101.3F) at Faversham in Kent, is on course to be the hottest year as a whole in Britain in nearly 350 years of reliable records. (SNIP) Professor Phil Jones, co-director of the CRU, said this could not be accounted for by natural climate variability, and can be attributed to global warming caused by human actions. It is unusual for a leading scientist to make the link so directly. "The temperatures recorded in Europe this year were out of all proportion to the previous record," he said.
ATTEMPTS AT WEAKENING MEDIA A NEW BATTLE FOR JOURNALISTS BANGKOK, Dec 5 (IPS) - For most Thai journalists, attempts to control the media in the past two years under the government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are a new battlefront they have never experienced before. The recent acquisition of 11 percent of shares in The Nation Multimedia Group, an independent media organisation, by family members of a cabinet minister has alerted many journalists to more subtle threats to media freedom, like issues of ownership. "The media's strength in initiating public debates to check on the state power has disappeared much," Prasong Lertrattavisuth a senior editor of the Thai newspaper group 'Matichon' told a meeting on media reform organised by the Thai Broadcasters Association and the Thai Journalists Association TJA). Prasong says the economic influence by politicians is a major factor in the weakening of local media. Money influence through advertisements has made media more of a business -- aimed at business survival and open to the threat of financial consequences, rather than professional values or their public mission. Yet media's task, Prasong continues, must be the initiation of debates regarding the public interest, apart from reporting facts and events. (MORE) |
|||||
|
©2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm BACK TO TOP |
|||||
 |
||||
| DAILY BUZZ | ||||
| INTERVIEWS | ||||
| ANALYSIS | ||||
| MEDIA LINKS | ||||
|
Unless
otherwise noted, all original |
 |
|||
