October 24, 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 OCTOBER 24, 2005

1//Worldpress.org, US--THE 2005 WORLD PRESS FREEDOM INDEX: COLOMBIA, MEXICO AND CUBA ARE HOLDING BACK THE CONTINENT (North Korea once again ranks last in the Reporters Without Borders fourth annual World Press Freedom Index. On this 167-country list, North Korea is in last place, closely preceded by Eritrea (166th) and Turkmenistan (165th), the other “black holes” for news where the privately-owned media is non-existent and there is no freedom of expression. … Some Western democracies slipped in the Index. The United States (44th) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and judicial action that is undermining the privacy of journalistic sources. Federal courts are getting increasingly bold about subpoenaing journalists and trying to force them to disclose their confidential sources. Canada (21st) also dropped several places due to decisions that weakened source confidentiality, turning some journalists into “court auxiliaries.” France (30th) also slipped, mainly because of court-ordered searches of media offices, interrogations of journalists and the introduction of new press offenses. Leading the Index once again are northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands, where robust press freedom is alive and well. The top 10 are all European. The highest-ranking countries in other continents are New Zealand (12th), Trinidad and Tobago (12th), Benin (25th) and South Korea (34th).)

2//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey--AS CAUCASUS UNREST SPREADS, KREMLIN FAILS TO ADDRESS CAUSES (… Kremlin policymakers appear to have barricaded themselves behind their official line and show no signs of considering new approaches to the root causes of radicalization in this predominantly Muslim region, experts say. As if on cue, President Vladimir Putin, reacting to the large-scale attack last Thursday in the southern city of Nalchik by scores of armed militants, vowed that Russian security forces will continue to "act in a coordinated, effective, severe way as we did this time." … These predictable responses however do not speak to a general deterioration in both living standards and human rights in Chechnya and elsewhere in the Russian Caucasus. This deterioration, analysts say, is linked to growing extremism in the region. "The police have been transformed into a criminal group that terrorizes the population, controls drug trafficking, runs rackets," charged Maxim Shevchenko, director of the Center for Strategic and Religious Studies.)

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon--ARAB LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS TIES TO IRAQI KURDS (Arab League chief Amr Moussa underlined the Arab world's ties to Iraq's Kurdistan on Sunday, and the Iraqi government suggested it would accept the holding of a national reconciliation conference. … Moussa had arrived in Irbil on Saturday to meet with regional President Massoud Barzani in a symbolic visit that marked Arab League recognition of the Kurdish autonomous region. … Moussa, on his first trip to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, said Saturday he had won crucial backing from Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani for his planned attempt to reconcile Iraq's divided communities. Moussa met last week with the prominent Sunni religious body, the Committee of Muslim Scholars, and several members of the government in Baghdad. Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr rejected Moussa's overtures, however, continuing to insist the League clearly condemn insurgent attacks before he would talk with the pan-Arab body which wants to hold a preparatory conference in Cairo on November 15 ahead of full talks in Iraq. … Participation in the conference from the Sunni Arab side, however, remains unclear.)

4//The News International, Pakistan--EU LEADERS TO AVOID TOUGH TOPICS AT INFORMAL SUMMIT (European Union leaders will broach the "challenges of globalisation" at an informal summit this week, while strenuously avoiding awkward topics, which have dragged the bloc to the brink of all-out crisis. The summit talks, amid the Tudor splendour of Hampton Court Palace outside London, are officially aimed at working out Europe’s strategic response to the threat typified by rising Asian giants like China and India. But looming over the meeting like a royal spectre will be the dual challenge of a deadlock over the bloc’s future budget, and the more fundamental question of its whole future, following the rejection by France and the Netherlands of the EU constitution. … But while some still want to discuss finances, formally the one-day meeting-cut down from two after some EU leaders clearly thought there was not enough meat to justify the overnight stop-will tackle the lofty subject of Europe’s future in the age of "globalisation." … French President Jacques Chirac - whose long-strained relations with the British leader have reached a new nadir amid the EU budget standoff - can be counted on to have diverging views from the summit host. Paris has long been the champion of a European economic model, which puts far more emphasis on generous social protection, workers’ rights and ensuring that key state enterprises remain viable.)

5//The Independent, UK--LABOUR WOMEN WARN AGAINST ‘MACHO’ POLICIES (A powerful coalition of female Labour ministers is to warn Tony Blair and Gordon Brown against pushing the party towards a "macho" policy agenda. Senior figures in the Labour Party, including Harriet Harman, the Constitutional Affairs minister, Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, and Margaret Hodge, Work and Pensions minister, are insisting Labour's "renewal" programme will fail unless it includes more female-friendly policies. A "women's manifesto" drawn up by female members of the Parliamentary Labour Party is to ensure that issues such as childcare are central to the Government's agenda. The move follows concern that Labour could lose women voters to a reinvigorated Tory party led by David Cameron.)

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1//Worldpress.org, US October 22, 2005
http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2166.cfm

Press Release
THE 2005 WORLD PRESS FREEDOM INDEX: COLOMBIA , MEXICO AND CUBA ARE HOLDING BACK THE CONTINENT

Reporters Without Borders
Paris, France

Reporters Without Borders compiled this Index of 167 countries by asking its partner organizations (14 freedom-of-expression groups scattered across five continents) and its network of 130 correspondents — as well as journalists, researchers, legal experts and human rights activists — to answer 50 questions used to assess the status of press freedom in each country. Some countries were omitted due to a lack of information.

North Korea once again ranks last in the Reporters Without Borders fourth annual World Press Freedom Index. On this 167-country list, North Korea is in last place, closely preceded by Eritrea (166th) and Turkmenistan (165th), the other “black holes” for news where the privately-owned media is non-existent and there is no freedom of expression.

Journalists working for the “official” media in these countries are little more than mouthpieces for government propaganda. Anyone out of step is harshly dealt with: one word too many, any commentary that deviates from the official party line, a misspelled name — and the author may be thrown in prison or incur the wrath of those in power. Harassment, psychological pressure, intimidation and 24-hour surveillance are routine.

The Index released earlier this week also chronicles countries in such regions as East Asia (Burma 163rd, China 159th, Vietnam 158th, Laos 155th), Central Asia (Turkmenistan 165th, Uzbekistan 155th, Afghanistan 125th, Kazakhstan 119th) and the Middle East (Iran 164th, Iraq 157th, Saudi Arabia 154th, Syria 145th) — regions where journalists face the greatest risks and where government repression or armed groups prevent the media from operating freely.

The situation in Iraq (157th) worsened in 2005 when the safety of journalists became even more precarious than in 2004. At least 24 journalists and media assistants have been killed so far this year, making it the mostly deadly conflict for the media since World War II — a conflict that proved more deadly for the media in a few months than during the entire Vietnam War. A total of 72 media workers have been killed since the fighting began in March 2003.

But a growing number of African and Latin American countries have earned very respectable rankings: Benin 25th, Namibia 25th, El Salvador 28th, Cape Verde 29th, Mauritius 34th, Mali 37th, Costa Rica 41st and Bolivia 45th.

Western Democracies Lose Ground

Some Western democracies slipped in the Index. The United States (44th) fell more than 20 places, mainly because of the imprisonment of New York Times reporter Judith Miller and judicial action that is undermining the privacy of journalistic sources. Federal courts are getting increasingly bold about subpoenaing journalists and trying to force them to disclose their confidential sources. Canada (21st) also dropped several places due to decisions that weakened source confidentiality, turning some journalists into “court auxiliaries.” France (30th) also slipped, mainly because of court-ordered searches of media offices, interrogations of journalists and the introduction of new press offenses.

Leading the Index once again are northern European countries Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands, where robust press freedom is alive and well. The top 10 are all European. The highest-ranking countries in other continents are New Zealand (12th), Trinidad and Tobago (12th), Benin (25th) and South Korea (34th).

Press Freedom, Economic Development and Independence

Countries that have recently won or regained their independence value press freedom very highly, thereby disproving the fallacy advocated by many authoritarian leaders that democracy takes decades to establish itself. Nine states that have only existed, or regained their independence, within the past 15 years, are found among the top 60 countries in the Index: Slovenia (9th), Estonia (11th), Latvia (16th), Lithuania (21st), Namibia (25th), Bosnia-Herzegovina (33rd), Macedonia (43rd), Croatia (56th) and East Timor (58th).

The Index also refutes the theory frequently advanced by leaders of poor and repressive countries that economic development is a vital prerequisite for democracy and the respect for human rights. The top portion of the Index is heavily dominated not only by rich, but also by very poor, countries (the latter having a per capita G.D.P. of less than $1,000 in 2003). The top 60 countries include Benin (25th), Mali (37th), Bolivia (45th), Mozambique (49th), Mongolia (53rd), Niger (57th) and East Timor (58th).

Breaking Away

In terms of press freedom, the small Caribbean state of Trinidad and Tobago (12th) is still the region’s top-ranked country. El Salvador (28th) — a still-fragile democracy after years of civil war — came in second, followed, as it was last year, by Costa Rica (41st), Bolivia (45th), Uruguay (46th) and Chile (50th), where attacks on press freedom usually amount to intimidation and threats.

(MORE)

2//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey Sunday, October 23, 2005
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=26451

AS CAUCASUS UNREST SPREADS, KREMLIN FAILS TO ADDRESS CAUSES

Russia's North Caucasus is far from peaceful, with the highest poverty rates in the country, rampant corruption among ruling elites and heavy-handed police tactics like arbitrary arrest now commonplace

Marielle Eudes

MOSCOW – AFP Another armed attack in the Caucasus has brought out the familiar Kremlin line about "international terrorism" in southern Russia and the need for a hardline security response.
But the refrain masks concrete causes ranging from economic despair to religious intolerance that provide fertile ground for extremists to flourish and which the Kremlin ignores at its peril, experts said.

"Now people are dying in Nalchik, in Kabardino-Balkaria," the online daily Gazeta.ru said in an editorial. "Last year it was Nazran and Beslan. It's also happening every week in Dagestan and every day in Chechnya."

"Wahhabis" and "international terrorists" are wheeled out as the main culprits, Gazeta.ru said, while the Kremlin goes out of its way to show that all is calm and peaceful in Chechnya six years after Russian tanks first rolled in.

But Russia's North Caucasus is far from peaceful, with the highest poverty rates in the country, rampant corruption among ruling elites and heavy-handed police tactics like arbitrary arrest now commonplace.

"Throughout the North Caucasus, there is torture, arbitrary arrest, a simulated war on terror that results in innocent people being jailed," said Grigory Shvedov, a rights activist and analyst for the specialized Russian publication The Caucasus Knot.

"On top of that there is corruption that complicates an already difficult socio-economic situation," he said.

Causes of radicalization?

But Kremlin policymakers appear to have barricaded themselves behind their official line and show no signs of considering new approaches to the root causes of radicalization in this predominantly Muslim region, experts say.

As if on cue, President Vladimir Putin, reacting to the large-scale attack last Thursday in the southern city of Nalchik by scores of armed militants, vowed that Russian security forces will continue to "act in a coordinated, effective, severe way as we did this time."

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin also enunciated the official Kremlin line.

"Our country is in a state of war against international terrorism and the front line passes through the North Caucasus," he said.

These predictable responses however do not speak to a general deterioration in both living standards and human rights in Chechnya and elsewhere in the Russian Caucasus.

This deterioration, analysts say, is linked to growing extremism in the region.

"The police have been transformed into a criminal group that terrorizes the population, controls drug trafficking, runs rackets," charged Maxim Shevchenko, director of the Center for Strategic and Religious Studies.

(MORE)

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, October 24, 2005 http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id...

ARAB LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS TIES TO IRAQI KURDS
Compiled by Daily Star staff

Arab League chief Amr Moussa underlined the Arab world's ties to Iraq's Kurdistan on Sunday, and the Iraqi government suggested it would accept the holding of a national reconciliation conference.

On the ground, 13 Iraqis, including two small children, were killed in a series of attacks across the country that also wounded more than 30 people.

Addressing the Parliament of the autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq, Moussa said: "I hope stability and security will reign in Iraq, and that fraternity and cooperation will prevail between its different communities."

Moussa had arrived in Irbil on Saturday to meet with regional President Massoud Barzani in a symbolic visit that marked Arab League recognition of the Kurdish autonomous region.

Moussa said he was "happy to hear the Iraqi national anthem and the Kurdish anthem" played as the Parliament session opened.

"It is an important message to the Arab world from Kurdistan about the new Iraq," he stressed.

"Iraqi Kurdistan is an important part not only of Iraq, but also of the Arab world and the Middle East," he said.

Moussa, on his first trip to Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, said Saturday he had won crucial backing from Shiite spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani for his planned attempt to reconcile Iraq's divided communities.

Moussa met last week with the prominent Sunni religious body, the Committee of Muslim Scholars, and several members of the government in Baghdad.

Shiite radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr rejected Moussa's overtures, however, continuing to insist the League clearly condemn insurgent attacks before he would talk with the pan-Arab body which wants to hold a preparatory conference in Cairo on November 15 ahead of full talks in Iraq.

Barzani said Kurdish parties supported the national conference and would try to persuade the other parties in the government to agree. "For sure there is no invitation for those who practice terrorism against Iraqi population," he said.

In Baghdad, spokesman Laith Kubba indicated that the government would accept the League's proposal for a national dialogue conference.

"We welcome (Moussa's) initiative, and we welcome any effort to back the political process in Iraq," Kubba said.

Participation in the conference from the Sunni Arab side, however, remains unclear. Sunni Arab leaders told Moussa that movements involved in "national resistance."

The government, however, has soundly rejected participation by anyone involved in past violence.

"We want to eliminate violence in Iraq and go to the polls and support the political process. Everyone who comes according to these principles, we can open a dialogue with them," Kubba said.

(MORE)

4//The News International, Pakistan Monday October 24, 2005-- Ramazan 19, 1426 A.H.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/oct2005-daily...

EU LEADERS TO AVOID TOUGH TOPICS AT INFORMAL SUMMIT

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders will broach the "challenges of globalisation" at an informal summit this week, while strenuously avoiding awkward topics, which have dragged the bloc to the brink of all-out crisis.

The summit talks, amid the Tudor splendour of Hampton Court Palace outside London, are officially aimed at working out Europe’s strategic response to the threat typified by rising Asian giants like China and India.

But looming over the meeting like a royal spectre will be the dual challenge of a deadlock over the bloc’s future budget, and the more fundamental question of its whole future, following the rejection by France and the Netherlands of the EU constitution.

"I hope we can avoid getting into detailed discussions of the future financing issue at Hampton Court," said British Prime Minister and summit host Tony Blair, referring to talks on the 2007-2013 budget for the 25-nation bloc. The budget standoff is of particularly urgent concern to the 10 new, mostly ex-communist, countries, which joined the EU last year and need a resolution to unblock key EU funds for their still relatively poor economies.

But while some still want to discuss finances, formally the one-day meeting-cut down from two after some EU leaders clearly thought there was not enough meat to justify the overnight stop-will tackle the lofty subject of Europe’s future in the age of "globalisation."

Traditional EU heavyweights France and Germany-whose outgoing social democrat leader Gerhard Schroeder will be attending his last summit-will be keen to defend their long-cherished vision of Europe’s "social model."

But Blair, who currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, will be equally keen to bang the drum for the kind of free-market reforms espoused by Schroeder’s successor Angela Merkel.

The main theme of discussions will be "the opportunities and challenges of globalisation," Blair said in his letter of invitation to the summit. "How do we meet the competitive challenge and maintain the security of our citizens in a world of unprecedented movement?"

French President Jacques Chirac - whose long-strained relations with the British leader have reached a new nadir amid the EU budget standoff - can be counted on to have diverging views from the summit host.

Paris has long been the champion of a European economic model, which puts far more emphasis on generous social protection, workers’ rights and ensuring that key state enterprises remain viable.

(MORE)

5//The Independent, UK Published: 23 October 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article321607.ece

LABOUR WOMEN WARN AGAINST ‘MACHO’ POLICIES
By Marie Woolf, Political Editor

A powerful coalition of female Labour ministers is to warn Tony Blair and Gordon Brown against pushing the party towards a "macho" policy agenda.

Senior figures in the Labour Party, including Harriet Harman, the Constitutional Affairs minister, Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, and Margaret Hodge, Work and Pensions minister, are insisting Labour's "renewal" programme will fail unless it includes more female-friendly policies.

A "women's manifesto" drawn up by female members of the Parliamentary Labour Party is to ensure that issues such as childcare are central to the Government's agenda.

The move follows concern that Labour could lose women voters to a reinvigorated Tory party led by David Cameron.

Both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have stressed the need for Labour to renew itself in office with forward-looking policies to help secure a fourth term.

Ms Harman, who is leading the initiative, warned that efforts to attract voters could fail unless women-friendly policies were central to the process.

"The renewal of the party and the Government will fail unless it has gender issues at its heart, and it's Labour women who must lead and shape that agenda," Ms Harman said.

We have made huge progress on childcare but we are still very far from quality and available childcare for all. We have opened up the issue of domestic violence, but the services to support women who have suffered from domestic violence are still thin and patchy."

The initiative is backed by a coalition across Labour's political spectrum, including Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Health, Diane Abbott, left-wing MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, and Barbara Follett MP, chairwoman of the women's Parliamentary Labour Party.

Ms Jowell is to launch a series of "listening to women" seminars around Britain.

Education and healthcare are at the centre of Labour reforms, but women MPs fear not enough progress will be made on childcare, maternity leave and women's rights at work in preparing for a fourth term in office.

A series of seminars on women's policies, held in conjunction with the Fawcett Society, which promotes women in public life, is to be held in the House of Commons.

WHAT BLAIR'S WOMEN WANT...

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