Free Press
In politics there is a golden rule: beware agreements that cut across all political currents! The tragedy of Charlie Hebdo has been turned into a farce by the mammoth march in Paris, along with similar ones in cities across France, large and small. It is an insult on human intelligence to tie, in whatever combination, the names of Wolinski, Charb, Cabu and company with people of the ilk of the Camerons, Merkels, Rajoys, Renzis and Junckers of the world!Here is a march that is dedicated to the freedom of expression. And on the first row of the heads of state and government is, lo and behold, Ahmet Davutoglu, successor in the office of prime minister of Turkey to Tayyip Erdogan, newly elected president of the republic, who, in his twelve years as head of government, has ridden roughshod over the freedom of expression in his country!
Davutoglu also has another distinction, that of having acted, as foreign minister before becoming prime minister, as aide-de-camp to Tayyip Erdogan in the latter's quest of bringing down Beshar Assad of Syria through the good offices of all manner of Islamic fundamentalists. And lately, the Turkish government not only stood aside gleefully watching the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) try to bulldoze Kobanê, one of the newly autonomous cantons of the Kurds of Syria, rubbing its hands in anticipation of the collapse of this newly-won autonomy, but has also been supporting this organization in underhanded fashion, as much evidence shows.
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News The Government Approves! - First, allow me to offer this warning: Do not, for one moment, believe the FCC has backed off it's CIN (Critical Information Needs) initiative. It WILL be back, in another guise, most likely as a study to determine if minority ownership of broadcast stations is at a satisfactory level. Of course, it is not -- at least not in the eyes of the Democratic Party.It has been a while in coming but, as an old retired broadcaster, I have been expecting this move by the government for a very long time. Once "The Dictator," Obama, moved into the White House it was but a matter of time.
Ajit Pai, a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, was so upset about this move by the government to filter the news we get daily from the broadcast -- AND -- print media that he wrote an article about if for the Wall Street Journal Online. Here are HIS words:
"... The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories." - SOURCE
Commissioner Pai continues: "Last May the FCC proposed an initiative to thrust the federal government into newsrooms across the country. With its "Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs," or CIN, the agency plans to send researchers to grill reporters, editors and station owners about how they decide which stories to run. A field test in Columbia, S.C., is scheduled to begin this spring.
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The Boston Marathon bombing was, by any measure, a major news story. It occurred on Monday, April 15. In the days that followed, Americans were surely interested in the effort to find and arrest the two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsaraev, identified as the perpetrators.With specific regard to television news coverage, why that involved preempting all other news as well as scheduled broadcasting on the major networks, defies the imagination. Even the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion got short shrift. Compounding the 24/7 coverage was the fact that so little was known during most of the week. Reporters began to sound like they were lobotomized.
I knew within moments after the identification of the Tsaraev brothers as immigrants from Chechnya that they were Muslims. I not only didn’t need an expert to tell me that, but as the week continued, the real mystery is why news reporters and anchors were so silent on this obvious fact. Chechens have a long history in the intelligence community as being among the leading volunteers wherever al Qaeda is engaged in terrorism or warfare.
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Reporters Without Borders is concerned to see that many journalists who are trying to cover the demonstrations taking place in Iraq, Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain and Libya are being targeted by the security forces or prevented from doing their work.
“The embattled governments in the Maghreb and Middle East are resorting to intimidation and violence against journalists to prevent coverage of the demonstration that have been inspired by the recent events in Egypt and Tunisia,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge the authorities to respect the media’s work. The public in these countries has right to receive impartial and independently reported information.”
IRAQ
A number of demonstrations were held on 10 February to demand better social services, stable food prices and investigations into cases of corruption. Al-Sharqiya TV correspondent Hassan Khazali was dragged into a building by unidentified individuals while covering a demonstration in Samawah, in the governorate of Al-Muthanna. The video he had filmed was deleted and some of his equipment was confiscated.
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Reporters Without Borders is horrified by what appears to be an all-out witch-hunt against news media that are covering events in Egypt and is very concerned for all the journalists currently in Cairo, especially on the eve of a major demonstration planned by President Hosni Mubarak’s opponents for tomorrow, which they are describing as the deadline for his departure.
“Theft, violence, arbitrary arrests and extreme violence... the list of abuses against journalists by President Mubarak’s supporters is getting longer by the hour and they are clearly systematic and concerted,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Jean-François Julliard said.
“After shutting down the Internet and then reconnecting it at the start of this week, the regime has decided to target media personnel physically by unleashing its supporters in an unprecedented campaign of hatred and violence. This has gone beyond censorship. This is now about ridding Cairo of all journalists working for foreign news media.
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