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UN NAMES 10 MOST UNDER-REPORTED STORIES FOR 2006 Every year, the United Nations publishes a list of the 10 most serious stories most overlooked by global press. Developing nations, whose situations are often misunderstood or dismissed by news media, as too complicated, intractable, or of marginal relevance, take the spotlight this year. [Full Story] PRESS FREEDOM IS EVERYONE'S FREEDOM The freedom of the press is the freedom of the American people. Not its guarantor, not a metaphorical representation of freedom as an idea, not even merely a mainstay of a free system. A free and independent press is American liberty at work, building and defending itself against the slide toward secret or arbitrary exercise of power, as conceived within or beyond the legal process. [Full Story] CHINA PLANS "SMOKELESS WAR" AGAINST PRESS, DISSIDENTS China's president Hu Jintao has reportedly called for an intensive crackdown on media liberties. While China's government has sought to project an image of a more market-oriented, open system, it continues to forbid basic press freedoms and still persecutes journalists at an alarming rate. [Full Story]
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WAS HE ELECTROCUTED BY POLICE FOR USING OBSCENITY OR FOR ASKING UNCOMFORTABLE QUESTIONS OF A POLITICIAN? 24 September 2007 Last week, a journalism student attending a speech by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), at the University of Florida, was cuffed, electrocuted and detained by police while posing a series of hard questions to the senator. He asked the 2004 presidential candidate why he conceded the 2004 election "on the day" when there were reports from several states of voter suppression. He went on to ask why Kerry does not push to impeach Bush for the Iraq war, and to prevent war with Iran, then finishes with a third question about whether Sen. Kerry was "a member of the same secret society as the president". Police abruptly surrounded the student, before he could finish and while Sen. Kerry was beginning to answer. Sen. Kerry was heard faintly saying "That's all right, let me answer his question", but police ignored his request. As the student cried out "what did I do?" and "please help me!", police wrestled him to the ground, handcuffed him, then while he was pinned down, unarmed, under several officers, electrocuted him multiple times with a "Taser" device, designed to incapacitate violent or dangerous armed aggressors. In video footage of the incident, members of the audience can be heard screaming "stop!" and "why are you doing that?" as police tell the public to stay away and ignore their actions. Kerry does not visibly intervene to protect the student or defend the First Amendment principles so flagrantly violated by the actions of the police. He does however continue his answer, peppering his remarks with a request that people remain calm. The video has been seen hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube and on US news programs, analysts of conservative and liberal inclinations have expressed outrage at the treatment of any individual in this way, simply for asking a question. The University of Florida has reportedly suspended two of its campus police officers for their behavior —though at least four were involved in the mêlée— and promises and investigation. The police have defended their actions saying the events "sponsors" demanded that they intervene and remove the troublesome questioner, and that he was causing a "public disturbance" because his question went longer than the allotted time for use of the microphone. Organizers say they cut power to his mic after he used the sexually explicit term "blowjob", referring to the impeachment of former pres. Bill Clinton. (The Starr report, an official government document, available to the public, on sale in bookstores and free online, includes the same word, in a quote from Ms. Lewinski, as well as other, far more explicit terms and descriptions.) Whatever the reasons for the "intervention", the truth of the matter remains that an individual was detained, electrocuted and held in jail overnight for one of several unconvincing reasons: 1) he was too loud; 2) he talked too long; 3) his language was obscene; or 4) his questions are forbidden. None of these reasons constitutes "inciting a riot" as was originally alleged, nor do any justify the use of physical violence or incarceration as remedies. The fact that emerges is one lone civics debacle: a man was electrocuted in front of dozens of spectators, a US senator and running video cameras, with press in attendance, and on the campus of a major university, because someone did not like his demeanor or the content of his questions. There is no area of American jurisprudence that even contemplates such police action. And, the mystery remains: what does Sen. Kerry demand of the university for its shameful assault on freedom of expression? According to Amnesty International, more than 150 people have been killed in the United States by police using Tasers, since 2001. The manufacturers have consistently claimed that deaths are due to human error in the application of the technology, but many question whether targeted electrocution, which seeks to incapacitate by overriding the target's nervous-system impulses momentarily, can ever be applied without risk of serious injury or death. [s]
NET NEUTRALITY / MASS-MEDIA CONTROL: In San Diego, California, the sixth largest city in the United States, Clear Channel is planning to shut down the city's only progressive radio station, Air America, a nationally-syndicated talk radio format that often voices criticism of the national conservative social agenda, Republican party activities and big business interests. All of these have traditionally held strong sway over the military-centered mainstream of San Diego society. [Full Story] AT&T CENSORS PEARL JAM LYRICS IN WEBCAST, APOLOGIZES When Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder asked Pres. Bush to "leave this world alone" in song, online viewers watching Lollapalooza via AT&T's 'Blue Room' webcast were not able to hear it. The company cut the political lyrics from the webcast in what band-members, fans and net-neutrality advocates have called blatant censorship. AT&T blamed an outside contractor and apologized for the 'mistake'... The band issued a statement on its fansite, characterizing the situation as follows: "AT&T's actions strike at the heart of the public's concerns over the power that corporations have when it comes to determining what the public sees and hears through communications media"... Savetheinternet.com, in its introductory information to the issue of Net Neutrality, explains that "Editorial boards at the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Seattle Times, St. Petersburg Times and Christian Science Monitor all have urged congress to save the Internet." [Full Story] NET NEUTRALITY: A NECESSARY PRINCIPLE FOR MAINTAINING GLOBAL DEMOCRATIC STANDARDS The concept of 'net neutrality' refers to the current state of affairs in the free democracies of the world, where those who control the physical infrastructure of the Internet are not allowed to police its content or to charge for provider-user access. It is a vital ingredient in the make-up of the Internet, because it guarantees the freedom of information that makes the web so useful to free society and so valuable to those who do well what works in that open environment. [Full Story] VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: El concepto de la 'neutralidad de internet' se refiere al estado actual en los países libres, donde aquellos que controlan la infraestructura física de internet no pueden manipular ni controlar el contenido de los que publican contenido en esa red. Es un ingrediente elemental para garantizar la libertad de información que hace que la web sea tan útil y tan valiosa para la sociedad libre y abierta. [Texto completo] BILL MOYERS RELAYS THE GOOD NEWS OF NET NEUTRALITY 'VICTORIES' Journalist Bill Moyers explains how Net Neutrality is really about stipulating for all media regulations an 'Equality of Access provision' like that imposed on AT&T after "Free Press and SavetheInternet.com orchestrated 800 organizations, a million and a half petitions... a top-shelf communications campaign. Who would have imagined that sitting together in the same democratic broadband pew would be the Christian Coalition, Gun-owners of America, Common Cause and MoveOn.org?" [Go to video] DEATH OF THE INTERNET: WHY NET NEUTRALITY IS VITAL TO THE INFORMATION SOCIETY Lays out the rudimentary principles of NET NEUTRALITY, the concept which has governed the open, global internet until now, wherein no network managers can control what content you are able to view over the internet; that standard is now threatened by major phone and cable providers (ISPs) and by legislation passed by the House in 2006. [Go to video]
BACKGROUND: The foundation of a free society is a press with the freedom to criticize instruments of power and influence and to reveal wrongdoing as it actually takes place. War is not a sufficient reason to institute a system of broad censorship criteria or to rein in the news media, as if they posed a direct threat to the wellbeing of the nation. But increasingly, it appears that American news media are intolerant of facts as such, waiting for members of the government themselves to come forward with complaints. [Full Story] GOOGLE TO COLLABORATE IN CENSORING INFORMATION DELIVERED TO CHINESE USERS The premier internet search engine Google has launched a new Chinese service, under the domain Google.cn, which it will voluntarily censor in keeping with the mandates of Chinese authorities. The announcement came earlier this week, as the Davos trade talks opened and on the same day as China's government announced it was ordering the closing of a weekly newspaper known for publishing articles on topics the Chinese Communist party's propaganda office had banned or which included criticism of government policy. [Full Story]
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