May 23, 2005

World Media Watch

by Gloria R. Lalumia

BuzzFlash Note: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MAY 23, 2005

1//The Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates--IRAN ISSUES STERN WARNING TO EUROPEANS AHEAD OF NUCLEAR TALKS (Iran warned Britain, France and Germany Sunday against pushing for the Islamic republic to be referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme, saying such a step would spark “a crisis over which the Europeans would have no control.” Speaking ahead of high-level crisis talks due to be held in Brussels and Geneva this week, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also warned it would take “unilateral decisions” if it faced diplomatic punishment.)

2//The Pakistan Tribune, Pakistan--IRAN BANS AFGHANS FROM EASTERN BORDER (Iran banned Afghans from residing in the country's eastern border provinces for unspecified security reasons. Ahmad Hosseini, head of the ministry's refugees office, said the decision includes the border provinces of Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and that Afghans living in the area have to return to Afghanistan as soon as possible. … The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of harboring senior al-Qaida operatives who reportedly fled to the neighbouring Islamic republic after the US-led war on Afghanistan in 2001.)

3//EuroNews, France--EARLY GENERAL ELECTION LIKELY IN GERMANY AFTER POOR SPD RESULT (A disastrous result for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Socialist party (SPD) in a regional election means an early general election is likely. Exit polls released after the vote in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia put the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) ahead of Schroeder's SPD suggesting they will be kicked out of power after 39 years. … It looks like voter anger at the Socialists' controversial labour market reforms - which were intended to spur growth - caused many voters to switch allegiance. … The result is likely to boost the position of the CDU's national leader Angela Merkel. Some analysts predict she could become Germany's first female Chancellor.)

4//DW Worlde.de/Deutsche Welle, Germany--ITALY’S BERLUSCONI IN TROUBLE? (With a down-sliding economy, the political tide now may be turning for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. And it seems this time, TV isn't keeping him afloat. … Even TV appearances aren't helping this time, according to Tommaso DiBenedetti. "Berlusconi is now over-exposed. And his credibility is really, really weak." But it's not just a question of overexposure. As Giovanni Valentini said, promotion only works if the product is good. "But when the product is old, is not good, is bad, television is not enough." And now that Italians are feeling the pinch in their pocketbooks, it seems they may be ready to change the channel.)

5//The Moscow Times, Russia--1,500 DEMAND MEDIA FREEDOM (Some 1,500 protesters demanded greater press freedom and more access to state-dominated television networks at a Yabloko-organized rally Sunday near the Ostankino television tower. Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky told protesters wearing masks reading "Shut Off" and carrying signs reading "News Is Propaganda" and "Down With Censorship!" that Russia had no freedom of the press. "The freedom of the press is not the freedom of propaganda or pornography. It is the freedom to discuss the hardest questions and to find answers," Yavlinsky said, making a rare public appearance since he and his liberal party failed to get elected to the State Duma in 2003.)

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1//The Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates 22 May 2005
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?...

IRAN ISSUES STERN WARNING TO EUROPEANS AHEAD OF NUCLEAR TALKS
TEHERAN (AFP) - Iran warned Britain, France and Germany Sunday against pushing for the Islamic republic to be referred to the UN Security Council over its nuclear programme, saying such a step would spark “a crisis over which the Europeans would have no control.”

Speaking ahead of high-level crisis talks due to be held in Brussels and Geneva this week, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also warned it would take “unilateral decisions” if it faced diplomatic punishment.

“It is not legally possible to refer our case to the UN Security Council. May counties believe there is no legal basis for it. So if one country pressures others to do it, they will be the losers, and the Islamic republic of Iran would not lose,” he told reporters.

“We have taken the necessary measures and we are not afraid of being referred to the UN Security Council,” he added.

Asefi said that if the Europeans went ahead with pushing the dossier to New York, “it means that an issue that could have been solved with negotiations has become a crisis over which the Europeans have no control.”

“It is then that the Islamic Republic of Iran will feel no obligation or no commitment, and it will act upon unilateral decisions,” he warned, without elaborating.)

(SNIP)

Emergency talks between Iranian nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani and the three European foreign ministers are due to take place on Wednesday, the day after an “experts” level meeting in Brussels.

2//The Pakistan Tribune, Pakistan Sunday May 22, 2005 (1537 PST)
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=106428

IRAN BANS AFGHANS FROM EASTERN BORDER

TEHRAN, May 23 (Online): Iran banned Afghans from residing in the country's eastern border provinces for unspecified security reasons.

Ahmad Hosseini, head of the ministry's refugees office, said the decision includes the border provinces of Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchistan, and that Afghans living in the area have to return to Afghanistan as soon as possible.

However, he did not elaborate on the reason behind the ban.

The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of harboring senior al-Qaida operatives who reportedly fled to the neighbouring Islamic republic after the US-led war on Afghanistan in 2001.

(SNIP)

There are about a million Afghan refuges living in Iran, Tehran expects half of them to leave the country before the end of this year.

More than 1.3 million Afghan refugees have left Iran through a United Nations repatriation program in the last three years.

About 180,000 Afghanis who sneaked through Iran's porous 945-kilometer border seeking jobs were deported from Iran last year.

3//EuroNews, France 23 May 2005
http://www.euronews.net/create_html.php?page=detail_info&lng=1... (updated link)

EARLY GENERAL ELECTION LIKELY IN GERMANY AFTER POOR SPD RESULT

A disastrous result for German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Socialist party(SPD) in a regional election means an early general election is likely.

Exit polls released after the vote in the western state of North-Rhine Westphalia put the opposition Christian Democrats (CDU) ahead of Schroeder's SPD suggesting they will be kicked out of power after 39 years.

SPD chief Franz Muentefering says he has spoken to Schroeder and both propose seeking federal elections this coming Autumn.

(SNIP)

It looks like voter anger at the Socialists' controversial labour market reforms - which were intended to spur growth - caused many voters to switch allegiance.

North-Rhine Westphalia has suffered dramatically from a decline in the coal and steel industries. Almost a million people are unemployed there.

The poll had been seen as a pre-2006 general election test for Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government. It is likely to deal a blow to Schroeder's hopes of a third term as chancellor.

The result is likely to boost the position of the CDU's national leader Angela Merkel. Some analysts predict she could become Germany's first female Chancellor.

4//DW Worlde.de/Deutsche Welle, Germany 21.05.2005
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1590795,00.html

ITALY’S BERLUSCONI IN TROUBLE?
Megan Williams, Rome

With a down-sliding economy, the political tide now may be turning for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. And it seems this time, TV isn't keeping him afloat.

Silvio Berlusconi may nave immense political and media power, but it hasn't been enough for Italy's billionaire prime minister. When journalists bring to light unpleasant facts such as his association with the mafia, charges against him for bribing judges, and his tailor-made laws to get him and friends off the legal hook, he hasn't liked it.

In its April 28, 2003 issue, The Economist's cover page read "Why Berlusconi is Unfit to Lead Italy." Journalist David Lane wrote the article that chronicled many of Berlusconi's shady dealings. The Italian prime minister sued. Four years later, Lane's still involved in the lawsuit against the magazine.

"He's always maintained that the foreign press is in league with the centre-left opposition," Lane said. "And despite the fact that The Economist is a notoriously right-wing magazine, he seems to believe that we, in common with other newspapers and magazines from outside Italy, are out to get him."

(SNIP)

Got the Power

Giovanni Valentini, a journalist at Rome's La Repubblica daily, is one of the many Berlusconi is suing. In the article in question, Valentini identified the prime minister's conflict of interest in pocketing $3 million (3.8 million euros) from TV ads a year. "Don't forget that he's the strongest political man in Europe, one thousand times richer than the American president," Valentini stressed.

La Repubblica is one of the few dailies that has dared to speak out against Berlusconi. One of the reasons it's so outspoken is its owner, Carlo DiBenedetti, who once tried to buy Italy's second-largest publishing house, Mondadore.

Instead, Berlusconi took control of it by bribing judges, David Lane said.

But newspapers don't have a great deal of influence on the Italian public. La Repubblica and l'Unita, the two main papers openly critical of Italy's leader, have a combined circulation of less than 800,000. The real power lies in television.

Berlusconi's three privately owned channels are renowned for combining fluffy entertainment with fawning political talk shows. This lightweight, fun and games combo has been key to swaying a lot of voters, said Giovanni Valentini.

"And we know that about 6 percent of the voters vote under the influence of television. This 6 percent is about 3 million people," Valentini said. "In the last political elections, we had about 600,000 votes between center-left and center-right. This is the problem."

Voters not convinced

But it may not be as big as critics have feared. In April regional elections across the country voters voiced their widespread dissatisfaction with Berlusconi and his government. Candidates from opposition parties swept into power in 11 out of 13 regions. With national elections a year away, voters have shown they're no longer so amenable to Berlusconi's self-serving laws and poor handling of the economy. Nor do they buy his recent explanation for the bad economic outlook -- that Italians don't work hard enough and vacation to much.

Even TV appearances aren't helping this time, according to Tommaso DiBenedetti. "Berlusconi is now over-exposed. And his credibility is really, really weak."

But it's not just a question of overexposure. As Giovanni Valentini said, promotion only works if the product is good. "But when the product is old, is not good, is bad, television is not enough."

And now that Italians are feeling the pinch in their pocketbooks, it seems they may be ready to change the channel.

5//The Moscow Times, Russia Monday, May 23, 2005. Issue 3171. Page
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/05/23/013.html

1,500 DEMAND MEDIA FREEDOM
Combined Reports

Some 1,500 protesters demanded greater press freedom and more access to state-dominated television networks at a Yabloko-organized rally Sunday near the Ostankino television tower.

Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky told protesters wearing masks reading "Shut Off" and carrying signs reading "News Is Propaganda" and "Down With Censorship!" that Russia had no freedom of the press.

"The freedom of the press is not the freedom of propaganda or pornography. It is the freedom to discuss the hardest questions and to find answers," Yavlinsky said, making a rare public appearance since he and his liberal party failed to get elected to the State Duma in 2003.

(SNIP)

"It is no coincidence that we are gathered here at Ostankino. It is here that orders arrive on what ... to show on television," Communist deputy head Ivan Melnikov said.

Sunday's rally was the biggest for Yabloko in recent memory and the largest at Ostankino since 2001, when liberal activists gathered to protest the takeover of privately owned NTV by state-connected Gazprom. Most national television channels are now directly or indirectly controlled by the government.